Multiple is against gross salary...

...but it's more based on affordability now working from your net income.

No idea how they do it for self-employed, as I'm a salary-man, but for me they went through a painful exercise of income/expenditure and work out what you can afford to repay each month. Each provider has it's own criteria which are a bit baffling, and many of the cheap advertised rates are 'computer says no' in their approach. Northern Rock laughed me off the phone saying the repayments were too much, Santander laughed at the idea that I couldnt afford it! And regardless of what your actual outgoings are, they seem to work on national average spends. I'm a frugal cheapskate so 'know' I don't spend as much as they have to assume I do. Pain in the arse.

FWIW, I've been offered (in the past month) just shy of 4.5x by my bank, but only two providers would offer me that much. Most providers were topping out at 4x salary as the max. As a tip, getting quoted on 30/35 year terms seems to help massively on jumping through the affordability hoops, and most let you do overpayments so you can just treat it as a 25yr term anyway.

I'm employed, but for self-employed you usually need 3 years accounts. Presume they average it out? But no idea on what they base the multiple on though, soz.

Worth speaking to a broker - London & Country are decent enough and free, so no harm in giving them a call.

Posted By: CWC, Oct 5, 23:07:35