The grant letter gives one number. The vesting schedule decides how much of it a lender may ever see, and in which year. Why the same four-year award can produce three different borrowing figures, and how to time an application around it.
In short
A mortgage lender is unlikely to read the value of your restricted stock unit (RSU) grant. What it may count is what has vested, been sold and arrived in your bank account, often over the last twelve months, and a documented route on our panel may take around half of that figure. So the shape of the vesting schedule decides the case: a back-loaded schedule pays little in the first two years and a lot in years three and four; a front-loaded schedule does the opposite; a cliff schedule pays nothing for a year and then settles into a rhythm. On the same base salary and the same grant, the worked example below shows a difference of roughly £97,000 of borrowing between the three shapes in year two, and the year you apply in can matter as much as the lender you apply to.
Who this is for
You are a software engineer, tech lead or product lead at a listed technology company, your pay is a base salary plus RSUs, and your vesting schedule is one of the common shapes: back-loaded (a small share in year one rising to the bulk in years three and four), front-loaded (the largest share early, tailing off), or a one-year cliff followed by quarterly or monthly vesting. You want to know how a lender reads that schedule and whether now, or next year, is the better time to apply. Whether RSUs can count at all, and how the income is assessed, is covered in our article on whether RSUs can be used to qualify for a mortgage; this piece is about the schedule itself.
Why a lender reads the vesting schedule and not the grant letter
A grant letter is a promise about the future. An RSU grant for, say, £240,000 of stock over four years tells a lender what you may receive if you stay, if the shares are delivered on schedule and if the share price holds. None of that is income yet. What a lender may count is the stock that has vested, that you have sold, and whose proceeds have landed in your account, because that part of the award has behaved like pay.
That is why two engineers with identical grants can be offered different loans. The grants match and the schedules do not. One schedule puts most of the value in years three and four. Another puts a third of it in year one. A third puts nothing at all in year one and then vests every quarter. A lender looking at the last twelve months of vesting may see three different incomes from the same piece of paper.
The wider picture for engineers and product leaders is in our guide to mortgages for tech and product leaders. The question here is narrower: given the schedule you are on, what may a lender see, and when.
Mortgage & Protection Adviser
Specialist mortgage broker for City professionals. Simon advises software engineers, tech leads and product leaders paid in salary plus restricted stock units on how lenders read a vesting schedule, which lenders on our panel may count vested stock and when in the schedule to apply.
What a lender may count from an RSU award
Lenders on our panel fall into three groups on RSUs. Several mainstream lenders on our panel may exclude share awards from income altogether under their published criteria, on the basis that the units depend on staying in post and are paid in stock rather than cash. Others are silent, and an underwriter with no policy to lean on may set the award aside. A smaller group may count vested RSUs, on conditions.
The conditions matter more than the percentage. One documented route on our panel may take 50% of RSUs that vested within the last twelve months and in the current financial year, where vesting is documented as continuing for at least a further twelve months and the income is received in sterling. Other lenders that engage with RSUs may average the sterling proceeds over two years, or take the lower of the latest year and the two-year average, before applying their percentage. Unvested units are generally excluded across the panel, and units you still hold as shares are generally read as an asset until they are sold.
Three phrases in those conditions do the work. "The last twelve months" means the lender is reading one year of your schedule, and which year that is depends on where you are in it. "Continuing for at least a further twelve months" means the lender wants to see the forward schedule, so a tail that drops off can count against you. "Received in sterling" means selling at vest and banking the proceeds in a UK account is usually what turns a vest into evidence.
Criteria correct as of November 2026. Mortgage lending policies change regularly, for the latest advice, speak to us directly.
Back-loaded vesting: little in years one and two, most in years three and four
A back-loaded schedule (for example 5% in year one, 15% in year two and 40% in each of years three and four, with a cash sign-on filling the early years) may read poorly to a lender early on and well later, and the averaging window decides which. In the first two years the vested value may be too small to move the figure, however large the grant. From year three the latest twelve months become the strongest year you have had, and a lender that reads the latest twelve months with a documented forward schedule may read it as intended.
The trap is a two-year average. On a rising schedule an average of years two and three understates where you are now by design, because it pulls a 15% year into a 40% year. The same record presented to a lender that reads the latest twelve months, with the refresh grants already awarded showing vesting continuing, can produce a materially higher figure. Refresh grants are the other half of the picture: at many employers each annual review adds a further grant on the same back-loaded pattern, so by year four the grants stack and the vested value climbs each year. A lender may see that in the forward schedule from your equity platform, which is why that document goes in the pack.
If your base salary is capped by level and the rises arrive as equity, this is your schedule. The case below is the back-loaded pattern in practice, at the point where the stack had built.
study
Big Tech Principal Engineer Uses Back-Loaded RSU Vesting to Borrow £1.3m as Base Caps Out
A Principal Engineer whose base had sat at £200,000 through three pay reviews needed £1,300,000 for a £1,750,000 house. Base alone supported around £900,000, and a two-year average of his rising RSU vests fell short. A building society on our panel counted half of the £180,000 that vested in the last twelve months, with the refresh grants evidencing vesting ahead, recognised £290,000 of income and lent at roughly 4.5 times.
Read the full case study →Front-loaded and monthly vesting: strongest early, then the tail
The front-loaded schedule (a third of the grant in each of the first two years, then just over a fifth, then the rest, often vesting monthly) is the mirror image. In years one and two the vested value is at its highest, and a lender reading the latest twelve months may see a strong figure almost from the start. The question an underwriter may then ask is the opposite one: will this continue? The forward schedule from a single front-loaded grant shows the vests shrinking, and a lender that wants vesting documented for a further twelve months may read a tailing schedule with more caution than a rising one, even where the latest year is larger.
Two things usually answer that. Refresh grants, where the employer awards them each year, fill the tail: a second and third front-loaded grant layered on the first keep the monthly vests level or rising, and the equity platform shows the combined schedule. And monthly vesting gives an underwriter more data points than one annual event, which tends to help with the sustainability question. A twelve-month record of monthly sterling credits reads as a pattern in a way that a single annual vest cannot.
On a front-loaded schedule the timing point runs the other way from the back-loaded one: year two may be your best application year, and a two-year average may flatter year three rather than understate it. The practical consequence is that a front-loaded engineer two years in and a back-loaded engineer two years in, on identical grants, can be a long way apart on the same lender's treatment, which the worked example in the next section shows.
What does a lender want to see on a monthly or quarterly vesting schedule?
A record of sales that matches the schedule vest by vest. Frequent vesting produces many small events, and the evidence has to show each one arriving as money.
On a monthly schedule the equity platform may list twelve or more vests a year, each with shares withheld for tax. A lender that counts vested RSUs may want the sterling proceeds, so the cleanest record is a standing instruction to sell at each vest, with the brokerage statement and the bank credit matching every month. Where shares are sold in batches a few times a year the proceeds may still be accepted, but the underwriter has to reconcile vests to sales, and movements in the share price between the two can make the figures harder to follow.
Which twelve months a lender reads matters more on a front-loaded grant than on any other. In years one and two the latest twelve months are the strongest the grant produces. A lender that averages two years may give a similar answer in year two and a lower one in year three, when the smaller tranches enter the average. If you hold one grant and no refresh yet, the months after your second-year vests may be the point at which the record is long enough and the forward schedule has not yet thinned.
A move restarts the record. Lenders may want vests from your current employer, so twelve months of monthly vests at the previous one may not carry across, and a new joiner's grant with a cliff leaves a gap before the first vest arrives.
Cliff vesting: nothing for a year, then a rhythm
With a cliff schedule, nothing vests until the first anniversary, when a quarter of the grant is delivered, and the rest vests quarterly or monthly over the remaining three years. It is a common shape at listed employers, and it has one sharp edge for a mortgage: in the first year there is nothing to count. An application in month ten rests entirely on base salary, however large the grant, because no units have vested and no proceeds exist.
Once the cliff has passed the picture changes quickly. From month twelve the first vest lands as a lump, and from then on the quarterly or monthly vests build a record. By the second anniversary a lender reading the latest twelve months may see a full year of steady vesting at a quarter of the grant. A lender that also wants to see vesting continuing for a further year can see it in the schedule, because a cliff grant vests evenly from here on.
If the application can wait until the first vests have been sold and banked, and ideally until a few months of the post-cliff rhythm are on your statements, the RSUs can be in the case. If it cannot wait, the case stands on base salary, and the question is whether base alone reaches the figure at a lender with an enhanced tier for higher earners, which our article on 5x and 6x salary mortgages covers.
Same grant, same base, three schedules: a worked example
Take a senior engineer two years into a listed technology employer, on a £140,000 base salary, with a four-year RSU grant worth £240,000 at the date of grant and no cash bonus. She is applying at the end of year two, so a lender reading the latest twelve months sees her year-two vests. Hold the share price flat, treat each vested value as the sterling that reached her account, assume the documented route's conditions (current financial year, vesting continuing, sterling) are met, and apply one treatment throughout: 50% of the RSUs vested in the latest twelve months, at a standard loan-to-income (LTI) multiple of around 4.49 times. Only the schedule changes.
Please note: These figures are for illustrative purposes only. The actual amount you can borrow will depend upon your personal circumstances, credit profile, LTV, the lender's individual criteria and full affordability assessment.
The example holds the lender still so that nothing moves except the schedule. In practice the lender moves too: a lender with an enhanced LTI tier for higher earners can lift every bar, and a lender that averages two years rather than reading the latest twelve months can lower the back-loaded bar further and raise the front-loaded one. The timing conclusion differs by shape: a back-loaded engineer may gain more from a year's wait than from a change of lender, a front-loaded engineer may lose by waiting, and a cliff engineer gains little before the first anniversary.
The example also ignores share price, which a lender cannot. The vests may be counted at what they were sold for, so a falling share price shrinks the figure on every schedule, and a rising one grows it. That is one reason the lenders that count RSUs may want the proceeds sold and banked rather than valued on a brokerage statement.
study
RSU Mortgage UK: Mortgage Approved With Vested RSUs
A senior engineer on a base salary of £95,000 with RSUs vesting quarterly needed the equity in the case to reach the loan. The quarterly rhythm gave the underwriter a twelve-month run of sterling credits rather than one annual event, the lender averaged the vested proceeds over the record, and the purchase completed with the RSUs counted alongside salary.
Read the full case study →Refresh grants, the forward schedule and the sustainability question
Whatever the shape of your first grant, the forward schedule is what a lender may use to answer the question underneath every RSU case: will this continue? A lender that wants vesting documented for a further twelve months wants the equity platform's schedule, listing every tranche due with its vest date and share count, so the underwriter can see that the income has a source beyond the units that have already vested.
Refresh grants are what make that schedule hold up in years three and four and beyond. At many listed employers the annual review adds a grant each year, on the same shape as the first, and the combined schedule is the one the lender reads. Where refreshes are awarded, a single grant's tail is filled by the next grant's early tranches; where they are not, the forward schedule may show the vests ending, and an underwriter may read the latest twelve months with more caution. If your refresh grant for this year has been awarded but has not yet started vesting, it still belongs in the pack, because it documents the forward schedule even before a unit has vested.
Units vest net of the shares your employer withholds for tax at vest (sell-to-cover or net settlement), so the schedule shows the gross tranche and your statements show the net proceeds. Lenders may read the proceeds. Presenting both, with the reconciliation, saves an underwriter query, and it is the reason we ask for the equity platform export and the brokerage statements together rather than one or the other.
RSUs and an employee share purchase plan together: what counts?
The RSUs may count as income. The share purchase plan is unlikely to, but it affects the application in three other ways.
An employee share purchase plan (ESPP) takes a percentage of your salary each pay period and uses it to buy company shares, often at a discount, at the end of each purchase period. Because the money is your own pay, a lender is unlikely to read the shares or the discount as additional income.
The first effect is on your payslip. Contributions reduce net pay, and an affordability model that works from net pay or lists deductions may read them as a commitment. At least one lender on our panel may leave out discretionary payslip deductions, share scheme contributions among them, where you confirm you would stop them if money were tight. It is worth knowing your contribution rate before an application, and pausing contributions is an option where the monthly figures are close.
Criteria correct as of November 2026. Mortgage lending policies change regularly, for the latest advice, speak to us directly.
The second is the deposit. Shares bought through the plan can be sold and the proceeds used as deposit, with the plan statement, the sale confirmation and the bank credit as the trail. Any tax due on the sale is for your own adviser, and a lender reads the net amount that reaches your account.
The third is concentration. Someone with unvested RSUs, vested shares and plan shares all in one company has salary, variable pay and savings resting on one share price. Deposit has to be cash by exchange, so shares earmarked for it need selling in good time, and a fall in the price between application and sale can leave a gap.
What evidence a lender may ask for, and when to sell
For an RSU case on any schedule the pack is the same five things: the grant letters for every award, including refreshes; the vesting schedule from the equity platform showing past and future tranches; brokerage statements for each vest and sale; bank statements showing the sterling credits; and payslips and P60s for the base salary. Where the units are in US dollars (USD), the statements showing the conversion and the sterling arriving in a UK account do the work that a currency policy would otherwise do, and our guide to foreign currency income covers the position where dollar income is used as dollars.
Selling at vest is the decision that most often turns a schedule into evidence. Lenders on our panel that count RSUs generally want the proceeds: shares kept in a brokerage account are an asset, however well they have done, and the sale proceeds arriving in your account are the income their criteria describe. Not every unit has to go. Several clients sell a set proportion of each vest and keep the rest, which gives the lender a sterling record and keeps the position they want in the stock. Whether to hold or sell is a decision for you and your own adviser; what we can tell you is how each choice reads to a lender, and that selling nothing usually means the RSUs count for nothing. How lenders on our panel differ on all of this is set out in our article on which lenders accept RSU income.
If the structure of the loan needs to flex with the schedule, a part-and-part mortgage lets the contractual payment sit on base salary while the vests reduce an interest-only element in lump sums; our guide to interest-only mortgages covers the rules lender by lender.
study
US Tech Employee Based in the UK Secures £2.58m Remortgage Using USD Income and Equity Compensation
A UK-based employee of a US technology company, paid in dollars with a large equity component vesting on schedule, needed a £2.58m remortgage that the mainstream lenders on our panel could not reach. A lender with an established approach to equity compensation assessed the vesting record and the dollar income together, and the refinance completed with the equity in the case rather than set aside.
Read the full case study →How we approach a vesting-schedule case
In our experience the application is decided before it is submitted, by two choices: the lender whose window fits your schedule, and the month you apply in. So the first thing we do is map your schedule. On the first call we take your base, every grant with its shape and start date, what has vested and been sold in the last twelve months, what the equity platform shows for the next twelve, and whether the proceeds arrive in sterling, and we give you an indicative range the same day, with a view on whether a few months' wait would change it.
Then we use only the income the case needs. If base salary reaches the figure, the RSUs stay out and the application is simpler. If they are needed, we match the schedule to the lenders on our panel whose conditions it meets, present the forward schedule and the refresh grants so the sustainability question is already answered, and run a Decision in Principle (DIP) early. Where the schedule and the purchase do not line up, we say so; on a back-loaded grant, next year's application is sometimes the stronger one.
If you want to know what your own schedule looks like to a lender, a fee-free consultation is the quickest way to find out.
Part of a wider guide
The vesting schedule is one part of an equity-compensation case. If your package also includes options, an employee share purchase plan, deferred stock or a long-term incentive plan, the wider guide covers how each is assessed and how to present a multi-part equity case.
Read the equity compensation guide →FAQs
Yes, where a lender counts RSUs at all. Lenders on our panel that count them generally read the units that vested and were sold in the last twelve months, so a back-loaded, front-loaded or cliff schedule puts a different figure in front of the underwriter at the same point in your employment.
Often cautiously in the first two years, when little has vested, and better from year three. A lender that averages two years may understate a rising schedule; a lender that reads the latest twelve months with the forward schedule documented may read it as intended. On a back-loaded grant, a year's wait can change the figure more than a change of lender.
You can, but the RSUs are unlikely to be in the case. Before the first anniversary nothing has vested, so the application rests on base salary, which at some lenders may reach an enhanced loan-to-income tier for higher earners. Once the cliff has passed and the first vests have been sold and banked, the RSUs can be presented.
They may, because they document vesting continuing. A lender that wants to see at least twelve months of further vesting reads the combined schedule from your equity platform, and refresh grants are what keep that schedule level or rising once the first grant tails off. A refresh awarded this year belongs in the pack even if it has not started vesting.
For the lenders on our panel that consider RSU income, yes. Shares held in a brokerage account are generally read as an asset; the sale proceeds arriving in your bank account are the income their criteria describe. Some clients sell a set share of each vest and keep the rest, which gives the lender a record without selling everything.
Often, yes. A twelve-month run of monthly or quarterly sterling credits gives an underwriter more data points and a smoother pattern than a single annual vest, which tends to help with the question of whether the income is sustainable. The percentage a lender counts is usually the same; the confidence behind it can differ.
Some lenders may require income used in affordability to be received in sterling, and others may apply a currency adjustment to dollar income. Where the units are sold at vest and the sterling proceeds are evidenced in a UK account, that is generally the cleaner route and much of the currency question falls away.
Generally not. An employee share purchase plan (ESPP) buys shares with your own salary, so the contributions are savings and the shares are an asset rather than pay; proceeds from selling them may be used towards a deposit once banked. Where an ESPP sits alongside RSUs, the RSU vests are the part a lender may count.
