The Typical Career Progression of a Doctor and What Each Stage Means For Mortgages
Being a doctor is a highly rewarding and respected profession, offering long-term earning potential and job security after completing your training. It might be surprising, then, to learn that when it comes to applying for a mortgage, doctors can run into difficulties because their jobs come with unique challenges. However, these challenges shouldn’t be seen as a roadblock to getting on the property ladder, especially when you turn to a specialist mortgage advisor who understands your profession, like Doctors Mortgages Online.
As the road to becoming a doctor can be a lengthy one, our latest guide looks at the typical career progression of a doctor and what implications each stage has for getting a mortgage.
Spoiler: It is possible to secure a mortgage at whatever career stage you’re at.
What The Typical Career Path of a Doctor Looks Like
After completing medical school, your career path might look a little bit like this:
- Foundation training – two years of training where you’ll move around different medical specialties to gain experience and training. From this point onwards until you become a consultant or GP, you’ll be classed as a junior doctor. You’re paid a salary during foundation training, and it is split by year into F1 and F2. In your second year, you’ll need to choose what speciality training you’d like to do in the following years.
- Specialty training and/or locum work – depending on which area you wish to specialise in, the next stage of training can take between three and eight years. Currently, GP training is three years, and all other pathways are between five and eight years, depending on the specialty you choose. During this time, you can also work as a locum doctor.
- Gaining a permanent position – after specialty training is complete, you’ll become a consultant or GP in a permanent position.
Why It Can Be Difficult For Doctors To Secure A Mortgage
It can be tricky for doctors to secure mortgages for many reasons, including:
- Short-term contracts across different NHS employers.
- Complicated income structure, which makes it challenging to prove affordability.
- Locum work and overtime can result in variable income.
- Moving around a lot during training to be close to where your rotation is based.
Getting A Mortgage At Each Stage In Your Career: What You Need To Know
Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know about securing a mortgage at whatever stage of your career you’re at and why going directly to a high street bank may not be the best option for you:
Foundation Training
If you’ve started or are just about to start your foundation training, you might run into problems trying to secure a mortgage by going directly to a high street bank. They may well notunderstand the intricacies of your work and will only take your application at face value, viewing you as a fixed-term contractor.
If you haven’t started in post yet, you won’t have any job or pay history to fall back on. However, some lenders will accept a copy of your contract or letter confirming your start date as proof and approve you for a mortgage based on that.
As you enter your F2 year, your position becomes stronger as you’ll receive a slight boost to your salary, and you’ll have evidence of being paid for the 12 months prior. It will all depend on your employment contract and work schedule as to how much you can borrow, but it is possible.
During Specialty Training
When doing your specialty training, you’ll again have a higher salary, which can increase your lending capability. Your fixed term will be longer, which means that lenders will see your position as being more secure.
Despite this, going to the bank directly could result in problems with getting a mortgage. With the help of a specialist advisor like us, we can provide lenders with a comprehensive overview that takes into account your payslip history and details of any additional pay you earn through locum work or overtime, increasing the likelihood of finding a mortgage product that suits your needs.
As An Employed Consultant or GP
Once you’ve qualified as a consultant or GP and are in a permanent employed position, you’ll run into fewer complications when it comes to proving your affordability for a mortgage. In most cases, you’ll simply need to provide your previous three months’ payslips as evidence.
Things might change slightly if you become a GP partner, but lenders will consider the practice’s history and your relationship with the practice as well as your earnings and potential earnings when it comes to approving you for a mortgage.
Get To Know Your Options With Our Help
Going through the mortgage application process can be stressful regardless of your profession. However, for doctors, there can be added complications that can cause the process to be drawn out or even lead to a rejected application simply because high street lenders don’t understand the complexities of your work and how you’re paid. That’s where our team at Doctors Mortgages Online comes in, we have built up relationships with trusted lenders and know how to package your application in a way that gets you the mortgage you need. Contact us today.
