Ways to apply

Show the section Are you eligible?
Show the section How to apply

As a responsible lender, we’re careful when it comes to offering mortgages. Eligibility criteria are below – if you’re not sure, please give us a call.

All customers

To apply for a first direct mortgage, you and any joint applicant must:

be a permanent UK resident and UK tax payer
be able to provide evidence of your income and outgoings to show that you can afford the mortgage.

	Repayment	Offset
Minimum loan	£10,000	£30,000
Minimum salary	-	Sole applicants must have a minimum salary of £50,000, joint applicants must have a combined salary of £75,000, or one party with a minimum salary of £50,000.
Maximum term	40 years	25 years
Minimum term	2 years	2 years
Maximum loan to value (LTV)	90%	75%

General property criteria

All properties must be in the UK and be of standard construction with a working kitchen and bathroom.

At the moment, we don’t lend on Buy to Let properties or where the property has been bought under a right to buy or shared ownership scheme. The property must be used as your main residence and not for business purposes.

For leasehold properties, we’ll only lend if there is at least 25 years left on the lease at the end of the proposed mortgage term.

New build properties

We count a property as being new build if it is less than two years old or has never been occupied in its current format. If you're borrowing against a new build property:

we may lend up to a maximum of 85% Loan to Value (LTV)
if you have an LTV greater than 75% you’ll need to have a minimum deposit of £25,000.

For remortgaging

your property can’t currently be up for sale.

Properties with land

If the property has more than 15 acres:

we’ll need a building survey before we can release any part of the mortgage loan
you’ll need to confirm there is no agricultural restriction attached to the property and that it’s used for personal use
we’ll only be able to lend you up to 75% of the purchase price or valuation, whichever is the lowest.

Flats

we may not offer a mortgage on a flat in the same building as a commercial property
if the building containing the flat has more than five floors, it must have a lift
if the block is ex-local authority we will require confirmation that at least 75% of the flats are now privately owned
we're generally unable to offer lending on freehold flats in England and Wales unless the property is of a particular type located in Tyneside or we’re also taking security against the freehold of the whole building.

Self-employed?

If you, or your joint applicant, are self-employed, you’ll need to submit audited accounts prepared by an appropriately qualified accountant in support of an application. The governing bodies that we recognise for accounting purposes are:

ACCA / FCCA – Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
ICAEW – Institute of Chartered Accountants (England & Wales)
ICAS – Institute of Chartered Accountants (Scotland)
AAT – Association of Accounting Technicians
ATT – Association of Taxation Technicians
CIOT – Chartered Institute of Taxation
CIMA (ACMA) – Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
CAI – Chartered Accountants Ireland
IFA – Institute of Financial Accountants.

If you’re an accountant and you complete your own accounts or a Sole Trader and complete your own self-assessment for Inland Revenue Tax purposes, you’ll also need to have them retrospectively signed and over-stamped by another independent accountant.

Show the section How to apply

How to apply

New mortgage customers

Telephone

Our qualified mortgage advisors can help you find the right mortgage from our range, absolutely free and with no obligation over the phone. Simply book a mortgage appointment with a quick call, and we'll guide you through the options at a time that works for you.

We may also need you to send us some paperwork before your mortgage appointment but we'll be able to let you know when you call to book.

New to first direct

0800 48 24 48^†

Existing 1st Account holders

03 456 100 103^†

Online

Applying online with first direct is simple and convenient if you're happy to apply without mortgage advice. You need to be aware that if you apply online first direct isn't required to assess the suitability of the mortgage that you choose, and you won’t receive the same protection offered by the Financial Conduct Authority’s rules as customers who use the advised telephone service.

Apply online

What we'll need from you

During your mortgage appointment we’ll ask you for details on all of the money you earn and spend, so that we can accurately assess the right mortgage arrangements for you. This appointment usually takes up to two hours, and you'll need to be somewhere you can openly share this personal information over the phone:

Existing mortgage customers

If you want to:
Move house, remortgage, discuss rates or borrow more:

03 456 100 103^†

If you have:
Completion questions, payment changes, statement requests, or to pay off your mortgage

03 456 100 198^†^†

Amend an existing online application

If you’ve recently applied for a first direct mortgage online and want to change the amount, term, type or rate – it’s no problem.

Go to our ‘Find the mortgage for you’ tool and ‘Amending an existing application’ will be selected for you in the ‘I am..’ field.

Enter your new details into the remaining fields and choose your mortgage from the results by selecting ‘Full details’. Then follow the on-screen instructions. By doing this you skip some of the pages that you already completed during your original application.

Think carefully before securing other debts against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Useful documents

Other handy tools

^† Lines are open Mon to Fri 8am to 10pm, Sat 8am to 8pm and Sun 9am to 8pm.

^†^† Lines are open Mon to Fri 8am to 9pm, Sat 8am to 5.30pm.