Big Tech Principal Engineer Uses Back-Loaded RSU Vesting to Borrow £1.3m as Base Caps Out
A Principal Engineer at the London office of a large US technology company had seen his base salary sit at £200,000 through three pay reviews while his restricted stock unit (RSU) awards grew, and the family needed £1,300,000 for a £1,750,000 house in Sevenoaks. Base salary alone supported around £900,000. A building society on our panel with a published policy on vested RSUs counted half of the £180,000 that vested in the last twelve months, recognised £290,000 of income, and lent £1,300,000 at roughly 4.5 times.
Client Snapshot
£1,750,000
Purchase price
£1,300,000
Mortgage amount
Just over 74%
Loan to Value (LTV)
Principal Engineer at a large US technology company, based in its London office; four and a half years with the company · Four-bedroom detached house, built in the 1960s, with a large garden, Sevenoaks, Kent (commuter belt) · £450,000 deposit · Part-and-part: £900,000 capital and interest, £400,000 interest-only, over a 24-year term; five-year fixed rate
Key constraint
Base salary at a standard multiple supported around £900,000; several mainstream lenders may exclude RSUs from income entirely, and a two-year average of a rising vesting schedule fell short of the loan
Context
Her parents live in Tunbridge Wells, and that settled the geography. The client, 41, and his wife, a physiotherapist working part-time in the National Health Service (NHS), own a two-bedroom flat in Bermondsey with no outside space. With their daughter turning three they wanted a garden and family close by, and a four-bedroom 1960s detached house in Sevenoaks, a short drive from her parents and half an hour by train into London Bridge, came up at £1,750,000. The deposit came from the flat sale and from RSUs he had sold at each vest and banked. The mortgage is in his sole name and every figure below rests on his income alone; his wife's part-time salary was left off the application.
His employer caps base salary by level and pays no annual cash bonus: beyond the base, pay is equity. His base has sat at £200,000 through three annual reviews, and each rise since has arrived as a further grant of RSUs. The new-hire grant vests back-loaded, 5% in year one, 15% in year two and 40% in each of years three and four, with a cash sign-on across the first two years to fill the gap, and annual refresh grants vest on a similar pattern. Four and a half years in, the grants stack and the vesting has climbed each year, from £70,000 to £180,000, each vest sold and the sterling paid into his UK account.
The Challenge
On base salary alone the numbers did not work. £200,000 at a standard multiple of around 4.5 times supports £900,000, roughly 70% of the loan. With no cash bonus to count, the rest had to come from the RSUs, and lenders differ here. Under their published criteria, several mainstream lenders on our panel may exclude share awards from income altogether: RSUs are contingent on staying in post and are paid in stock rather than cash, so those lenders can set them aside whatever the track record. Others are silent on them, and in practice that can have the same effect. A smaller group may count them, on conditions.
Among the lenders that may count RSUs, the method matters as much as the percentage. One common approach may take a proportion, often 50%, of an average across the last two years. On a rising schedule, averaging leaves the client short: (£120,000 + £180,000) ÷ 2 = £150,000, half of which is £75,000; added to base, recognised income is £275,000, and at 4.5 times that supports £1,237,500. Short of £1,300,000, before the underwriter has asked the harder question of whether the vesting will continue.
The back-loaded schedule also raised the question an underwriter is likely to ask of an award that has more than doubled in three years: is this a pattern or a spike? How lenders read RSU income is set out in our article on whether RSUs can be used to qualify for a mortgage →, and the wider picture in our guide to mortgages for tech and product leaders →
Mortgage & Protection Adviser
Specialist mortgage broker for City professionals. Simon advises engineers and product leaders paid in salary plus restricted stock units, structuring mortgages around vesting schedules, equity evidence, dollar-denominated awards and visa timelines.
Lender Strategy
The case was placed with a building society on our panel whose published criteria can accept vested RSUs at 50%, regular or not, on three conditions: the shares vested within the last twelve months and in the current financial year; vesting is documented as continuing for at least a further twelve months; and the income is received in sterling. Those conditions fit a back-loaded schedule of this kind well: the most recent twelve months are the strongest year, the refresh grants already awarded give a written forward schedule, and selling at vest into a UK account produces the sterling trail.
On that treatment: £180,000 vested in the last twelve months, counted at 50%, contributes £90,000. Added to the £200,000 base, recognised income is £290,000. £1,300,000 divided by £290,000 is roughly 4.5 times, inside the lender's standard loan to income (LTI) limit at this LTV, so the enhanced-multiple range the same lender offers was not needed.
Worked comparison, on the same vesting record
Big Tech Principal Engineer, £200,000 base, RSU vests of £70,000, £120,000 and £180,000
The same vesting record, assessed three ways.
- Base salary
- £200,000, unchanged for three years
- RSU awards
- New-hire grant vesting 5%, 15%, 40% and 40% across four years plus annual refresh grants on a similar back-loaded pattern
- Vest proceeds, sold at vest into a UK account
- £70,000 three years ago, £120,000 two years ago, £180,000 in the last twelve months
- Cash bonus
- None; cash sign-on payments in years one and two, now finished
- Purchase
- £1,750,000 with a £450,000 deposit
- Requirement
- £1,300,000 part-and-part at just over 74% Loan to Value (LTV)
£200,000 base at 4.5 times = £900,000.
(£120,000 + £180,000) ÷ 2 = £150,000; 50% = £75,000; plus £200,000 base = £275,000 recognised income; at 4.5 times, £1,237,500.
£180,000 × 50% = £90,000; plus £200,000 base = £290,000 recognised income; £1,300,000 is roughly 4.5 times.
The same vesting record throughout. The window the lender uses moves recognised income from £275,000 to £290,000, and the borrowing from £1,237,500 to the £1,300,000 the purchase required.
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 application showed sustainability on paper: the grant letters for the new-hire award and each refresh; the vesting schedule from the employer's equity platform, listing every tranche due over the next two years with its vest date and share count; and the broker statements and bank credits reconciling each past vest to the sterling that arrived. The covering note made two points. The base salary has not moved because the employer moves pay through equity at this level. And the refresh grants already awarded carry vesting through the next two years, regardless of any further award.
Structure came next. Part-and-part can run to 80% LTV at this lender, with the interest-only element capped at 70% of the value; at just over 74% overall with £400,000 interest-only, around 23% of the value, the loan sat inside both limits, and sale of the property was accepted as the repayment plan for the interest-only element with £450,000 of equity in place. The £900,000 repayment element was sized to the base salary, and the plan is to reduce the interest-only balance in lump sums as tranches vest, inside the product's overpayment allowance. Our guide to interest-only mortgages → covers how these rules differ from lender to lender.
The Result
The Result
A £1,300,000 part-and-part mortgage agreed at just over 74% LTV, at roughly 4.5 times recognised income
£1,300,000
Loan (£900,000 capital and interest, £400,000 interest-only; five-year fix, 24-year term)
Just over 74%
LTV
£290,000
Recognised income (base + 50% of the latest twelve months of vested RSUs)
Roughly 4.5×
Income multiple
Decision in Principle (DIP)
Within 3 working days
Offer
16 working days after the first call
Exchange
3 weeks after offer
Completion
4 weeks later, the flat sale completing the same day
A £1,300,000 part-and-part mortgage was agreed at just over 74% LTV on a five-year fixed rate over a 24-year term, at roughly 4.5 times the £290,000 of recognised income and priced within the lender's standard range for this LTV. The five-year fix was the client's choice: a fixed monthly cost through the years in which the vest tranches are expected to fall as the new-hire grant finishes. A Decision in Principle (DIP) was issued within three working days; the offer arrived sixteen working days after the first call, with one underwriter query on the vesting schedule answered the same day; exchange followed three weeks later and completion a further four, the flat sale completing the same day. The monthly commitment sits within the base salary, with the vest proceeds free for capital reductions. For borrowing at this scale more broadly, see our guide to large loans (£1m+) →
Why This Matters for Similar Clients
A common assumption among senior engineers at the large US technology companies is that the base salary cap sets their borrowing, because the base is the only number a standard affordability calculator asks for. The RSU schedule can close the gap, but only with a lender whose criteria count vested stock, and the window that lender uses may decide the figure: a two-year average of a back-loaded schedule may understate the income by design, where a latest-twelve-months treatment with a documented forward schedule reads it as intended. Selling at vest with the proceeds paid to a UK account can be what turns the schedule into evidence. Which lenders may count RSUs, at what percentage and on what conditions, is covered in our equity compensation mortgage guide →
What We Can Do for You
- Establish before any application which lenders on our panel may count vested RSUs, at what percentage and over which window
- Map your vesting schedule against those windows, so a back-loaded or stacking award is presented over the period that reflects it
- Advise on selling at vest, currency and account arrangements ahead of an application, so the proceeds evidence income
- Structure the loan around base salary, with vest proceeds used for lump-sum reductions
- Package grant letters, the equity-platform schedule, broker statements and bank credits so an underwriter can trace each tranche to the sterling it became
FAQs
They can, with some lenders. Several mainstream lenders may exclude share awards from income; others may count vested RSUs, commonly at around 50%, where the shares vested in the last twelve months, vesting is documented as continuing, and the proceeds arrive in sterling. Unvested tranches are generally excluded.
It can, depending on the averaging window. A two-year average of a rising schedule may understate current income, where a lender working from the latest twelve months with a documented forward schedule may not. In the first two years, when only 5% and 15% of the new-hire grant has vested, RSU income may add little.
For most lenders that consider RSU income, in practice yes. Shares held in a brokerage account are an asset; the sale proceeds arriving in your bank account are generally the income the criteria describe.
It can. Some lenders may require income used in affordability to be received in sterling, and others may apply a currency haircut to dollar income. Where the shares are sold at vest and the sterling proceeds are evidenced in a UK account, that is generally the cleaner route.
Grant letters for each award, the vesting schedule from the employer's equity platform showing past and future tranches, broker statements for each vest and sale, bank statements showing the credits, and payslips and P60s for the base salary.
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YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSESSED IF YOU DON’T KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE
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This client scenario is an amalgamation of cases we have handled. Details have been combined and adjusted to protect client confidentiality, and it does not describe a single client or transaction.
