Tier 2 Visa First-Time Buyer Mortgage for a Self-Employed Company Director with a Builder Gifted Deposit

Heron Financial arranged a £278,000 mortgage at 90% LTV for a first-time buyer on a Tier 2 visa, purchasing a new-build home for £309,000 with a deposit made up of personal savings and a builder gifted contribution. The client, a Zimbabwean national and self-employed director of a limited company with a 40% shareholding, already held an Agreement in Principle from Barclays via another broker, but needed a brokerage that could actually convert that AIP into a completed mortgage given the combination of visa status, self-employed income and builder incentive. Heron Financial restructured the application, placed it with Barclays on a 5-year fixed rate at 4.49%, and completed the case in January 2025.

The clients

The client was a first-time buyer in their late stages of saving for a home of their own, having spent nine years building a hairdressing business as a director of a limited company they co-own with a 40% shareholding. A Zimbabwean national living and working in the UK on a Tier 2 visa, the client had done everything by the book: nine full years of company accounts, a clear personal tax position, and a real deposit built up alongside a gifted contribution from the housebuilder as part of the new-build incentive.

They had already approached another broker, who secured an Agreement in Principle with Barclays. On paper that looked like progress. In practice, an AIP is a soft check. It is not a mortgage offer, and it does not guarantee that the underwriter will be comfortable once the full picture (visa, self-employment, minority shareholding, builder gift, 90% LTV) lands on their desk. The client came to Heron Financial wanting certainty, not optimism.

The case at a glance

The challenge

On its own, each element of this case is manageable. Stacked together, they narrow the lender market sharply.

Tier 2 visa at 90% LTV. Many lenders cap LTV for visa holders at 75% or 80%, or require a minimum period of UK residency remaining on the visa. Pushing to 90% materially shrinks the panel.
Self-employed Ltd company director with 40% shareholding. Most lenders treat directors with 25%+ shareholding as self-employed and assess salary plus dividends (or, more usefully here, salary plus share of net profit). The income approach taken matters more than the headline figure.

Builder gifted deposit. Builder incentives are common on new-build, but lenders treat them inconsistently. Some count the gifted portion towards the deposit. Others deduct it from the purchase price and re-calculate LTV against the lower figure, which can quietly push the case above the lender’s LTV cap.

New-build at 90% LTV. New-build flats and houses often have tighter LTV limits than second-hand stock. Combine that with a visa and self-employed income and the route narrows further.
An existing AIP elsewhere. The client had been told Barclays would lend. That was true at AIP stage, but an AIP doesn’t underwrite the file. Heron Financial’s job was to make sure the case actually reached offer.

How Heron Financial approached the recommendation

The Heron adviser started by re-running the case from scratch rather than relying on the existing AIP. That meant verifying three things in parallel:
Visa and residency criteria. Heron Financial confirmed Barclays’ current policy on Tier 2 visa applicants at 90% LTV, including any minimum remaining visa term and UK residency requirements, and matched the client’s documentation to that policy before submission.

Income assessment for a 40% shareholder. With nine years of accounts on file, Heron had room to present the income in the way that produced the strongest, most sustainable affordability picture for Barclays’ underwriting model, using salary and share of company profits rather than salary and dividends alone where appropriate.

Builder gifted deposit treatment. Heron Financial structured the deposit disclosure so the builder’s £15,000 contribution was treated correctly as a gifted incentive on top of the client’s own £15,000 savings, with the LTV calculated cleanly at 90% against the full £309,000 purchase price.
Barclays was the right home for this case not because of the existing AIP, but because their policy genuinely fits Tier 2 visa holders at higher LTVs and they have a workable approach to director income. 

The 5-year fixed at 4.49% gave the client rate certainty through to the end of 2029, which mattered for a first-time buyer stepping into a 90% LTV mortgage on a new-build.

The outcome

Barclays issued a mortgage offer and the case completed in January 2025. The client moved into their first home with:
A £278,000 mortgage at 90% LTV
A 5-year fixed rate at 4.49% on capital and interest repayment
Their personal savings preserved as much as possible, with the builder’s gifted deposit doing real work in the deposit stack
Payment certainty through to the end of 2029.

What this means for buyers in a similar position

If you are on a Tier 2 visa, self-employed through a limited company, and buying a new-build with a builder incentive, the combination is not a dealbreaker. It does, however, demand a broker who knows which lenders take each ingredient seriously at the LTV you need. 

An Agreement in Principle from a high-street lender is a useful starting point, but it is not the same as a mortgage offer. The work happens between AIP and offer, and that’s where case structuring matters most.