FOR YEARS, self-employed borrowers have turned to non-bank lenders for the flexibility needed to navigate complex income structures. But they’re not the only ones competing in this space now. In August 2025, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) became the latest major to roll out tweaks to its mortgage policy for self-employed borrowers, including enabling those who have received income through director fees or company dividends to provide one year of income documentation (rather than two) when applying for home loans.

ANZ has long accepted one year of financials for income verification for the self-employed and, in September 2024, extended this policy to those with lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), allowing them to provide one year of financials, subject to a 20 per cent shading of net profit before tax. As well as expanding this out to those with director fees or company dividends, ANZ is also making tweaks for those with an existing ‘fixed rate and term’ asset finance, lease, or hire purchase. ANZ has said it will now use the actual repayment as part of the assessment, instead of adding a 3 per cent interest rate buffer, making it easier to qualify for a home loan.

Customers with business overdrafts can also now amortise over 10 years, rather than seven, thereby enhancing borrowing capacity. Speaking to The Adviser in August, ANZ’s general manager, retail broker, Natalie Smith, said the changes would make it easier for brokers to support customers based on their individual circumstances or business goals.

“We know that a significant number of our home loan applications are for self-employed customers – and this represents genuine opportunities for brokers,” she said. “Offering a ‘full service’ by supporting customers with their home and business lending needs is a great opportunity for brokers to differentiate themselves in market.”

Supporting customers with their home and business lending needs is a great opportunity for brokers to differentiate themselves in market
– Natalie Smith, general manager, retail broker, ANZ

But ANZ isn’t the only major coming to the self-employed party. In the past 12 months, each of the big four banks has rolled out policy tweaks to cater for the 62.5 per cent (1.66 million) of Australia’s 2.66 million trading businesses that are self-employed, based on June 2024 data from the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO).

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) announced it had adopted a one-year financials policy in October 2024. At the time of its announcement, a CBA spokesperson told The Adviser these tweaks would help self-employed Australians fulfil their property ambitions. “This will allow us to help even more self-employed home buyers achieve their property ownership goals,” they said. “We know a lot of self-employed customers choose to use a broker who understands all too well the challenges that business owners face.”

CBA was followed by similar moves from National Australia Bank (NAB) in March 2025. NAB’s executive, broker distribution, Adam Brown, said recent changes would help brokers better service their self-employed clients. “We’re giving more people greater financial flexibility and access to homeownership,” he said.

“This builds on our recent changes to support self-employed customers and the introduction of multi-offsets, reflecting our commitment to listening to brokers.”

Meanwhile, Westpac introduced a similar one-year income assessment option for the self-employed in July 2025. James Hutton, managing director, mortgages at Westpac, told The Adviser it had seen continued growth in the number of self-employed customers seeking tailored support.

“Self-employed people often have different needs and challenges in accessing home finance because their income can be more variable, or require additional verification to traditional payslips,” he said.

“By introducing a one-year income assessment, we are making the home loan process faster and simpler by requiring less documentation, helping more self-employed Australians to secure their home or investment property sooner.”

Broker perspectives

So, what does this mean for the third-party channel? Chris Raymond, principal finance broker at Unconditional Finance, told The Adviser he believes the shift from a two-year to a one-year income assessment is a long-overdue and impactful change, especially for businesses that have bounced back or grown recently after COVID-19. He also highlighted that many businesses, despite strong performances in the most recent financial year, were previously disadvantaged by weaker historical figures.

“When you’re only looking at the most recent year, it can really open things up and let these borrowers achieve a borrowing capacity that actually matches where they’re at now, rather than being stuck with an average from the past,” he explained. Similarly, Melissa Ashcroft, general manager at AAA Financial Group, told The Adviser shifting to one-year financials was a “step in the right direction”, providing a more relevant “real-time snapshot of the business’s current performance”, noting that it “creates more opportunity for newer businesses that are no longer in their startup phase but have not yet built two full years of financial history”. “We’re now in a better position to consider [major banks] earlier in the recommendation process than we may have previously,” Ashcroft told The Adviser.

However, David Warburton, finance broker at Victorian-based brokerage Rate Challenge, also noted there are still plenty of boxes to tick when placing a self-employed borrower with a major lender.

“If BAS and tax returns line up with the business bank statements, super is paid on time, and there’s no unresolved ATO debt, the majors can be very competitive,” he said. “Where files stumble is conduct and cash-flow volatility: multiple recent credit applications, missed card or loan repayments, or large undischarged tax liabilities. In those cases, self-employed borrowers often need extra work before they fit a major’s box.”

He also encouraged any brokers working with the majors to do the groundwork at the start. “A stronger pre-work phase leads to faster yeses with the majors,” he said. “When the story is coherent – clean ATO position, consistent receipts, and sensible buffers – the majors still want well-run self-employed borrowers, and they will compete for them.