- New criteria tailored to growing demand for purchase and remortgage products for UK visa holders
- Visa holder income now considered in affordability assessments for foreign national applications
- Skilled workers, healthcare professionals, and specialist employees set to benefit
Specialist mortgage lender Pepper Money has enhanced its residential lending criteria by accepting income from UK visa holders on applications up to 75% LTV, providing broader access to its comprehensive range of residential mortgage products where at least one applicant holds permanent right to reside.
Renowned for delivering fair lending solutions to customers with non-standard financial backgrounds, Pepper Money will now include income from UK visa holders across all residential purchase and remortgage products. This move reinforces the lender’s ongoing commitment to making homeownership more inclusive and accessible.
To qualify, visa holders must demonstrate a minimum of two years’ employment history in the UK, a UK residence, and at least three years of UK address history—ensuring applicants show long-term stability. The following visa categories are eligible under the revised policy:
- Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa (accepted for holders with valid status, although now closed to new applicants)
- Tier 2 Skilled Worker Visa (currently known as the ‘Skilled Worker’ Visa)
- Senior or Specialist Worker Visa
- Health and Care Worker Visa
- Family Visa
Pepper Money continues to stand out in the market for its human approach to underwriting, tailoring affordability assessments to reflect real-life borrower circumstances. All foreign national applicants will undergo full affordability checks and be required to present valid visa documentation.
Paul Adams, Sales Director at Pepper Money, said:
“As the UK continues to attract international talent across sectors like tech, healthcare and academia, it’s vital that our financial system evolves to support those contributing to the economy. By extending our product criteria to accept UK visa holders, we’re helping skilled individuals put down roots and participate further in UK life.
“At Pepper Money, we take an inclusive approach to lending, and these changes to our criteria attest to this. Enhancing our proposition to include income from UK visa holders in our affordability assessments ensures that hard-working individuals on eligible visas, who contribute to the UK economy and have established roots, aren’t excluded from homeownership.
“This isn’t just about expanding access, it’s about creating a fairer, more inclusive mortgage market. We’re working closely with brokers to provide more options for their just-off-high-street customers, deliver market-leading service, competitive rates, and certainty of price for a significant portion of the market who are in a good position to accept this finance, but would otherwise have been overlooked.”
For more information on Pepper Money’s product range, please visit www.pepper.money.
