We've widened our affordability criteria which includes a big change to secondary income

Nottingham Building Society, the mortgages and savings mutual, has widened its affordability criteria to prospective home buyers in the UK. 

The highlight of those changes is that the leading mutual society is now accepting 100% of secondary income as part of applications, up from the previous 50% threshold. The change comes after Nottingham Building Society conducted research that showed one in five people in the UK had taken on a ‘side hustle’ to increase their chances of securing a mortgage.   

The organisation has also recently rebranded as a reflection of the significant and ongoing changes in the way people live their lives, earn their income, and choose to manage their money. 

Alongside the increase in secondary income recognition, Nottingham Building Society is now also accepting 100% of child maintenance income, has set its pension contribution assumption to a more affordable 5%, updated its contractual car allowance acceptance to cover contractual travel allowance at 100%, and has refreshed its National Insurance acceptance thresholds to the updated bandings. 

Matt Kingston, Sales Director at Nottingham Building Society, said: “Our latest updates to affordability criteria reflect our ongoing commitment to adapting to the needs of today’s borrowers. By recognising a wider range of income sources, such as 100% of secondary income and child maintenance, we’re ensuring our criteria evolve with modern financial realities.  

“This is just the first step in our journey for 2025. We remain focused on creating innovative solutions that help even more people from diverse financial backgrounds access the housing market, and we’re excited to continue building on these improvements throughout the year.” 

Before Christmas, Nottingham Building Society also confirmed that it had adopted new auto-assisted underwriting technology to speed up its decision-making process for mortgage applications via intermediaries. The system will also support the development of innovative new propositions enabling them to lend where others may not. The Society has also announced its partnership with Smoove as its partner for panel management services.