Macro Trader Secures £1.7m Interest-Only Mortgage on £2.3m Home Using Multi-Year Bonus
A macro trader at a global investment bank earned most of her income through a discretionary bonus that swung sharply from year to year: £420,000, then £180,000, then £330,000. She needed £1.7m for a £2.3m East London house, structured so the monthly commitment sat within her base salary alone. A clearing bank prepared to average the bonus across three full years recognised £386,000 of income and agreed the loan interest-only, with capital paid down as bonus rounds land.
Client Snapshot
£2,300,000
Purchase price
£1,700,000
Mortgage amount
Just under 74%
Loan to Value (LTV)
Macro trader on the rates and foreign exchange (FX) desk of a global investment bank, twelve years in front-office trading roles · Victorian terrace over four floors, East London (Victoria Park) · £600,000 deposit · Interest-only, tracker with no early repayment charges (ERCs)
Key constraint
Income arrived unevenly, so the monthly commitment had to be serviceable from base salary alone, with capital reduced in lump sums when bonuses landed and no dependence on any single year's number
Context
The client has run macro risk on the rates and FX desk of a global investment bank for twelve years. Her base salary is £200,000; the real money arrives once a year as a discretionary bonus set by desk performance, and her last three prints were £420,000, £180,000 and £330,000. Nothing about that pattern worried her; it is what profit-and-loss-linked (P&L-linked) compensation looks like. She and her husband, a secondary-school teacher, had rented in Victoria Park for years while her bonus rounds built the deposit. When a Victorian terrace on a street they knew came up, they agreed a £2,300,000 purchase; the £600,000 deposit was already banked.
The application went in her sole name: the borrowing stood on her income alone, and her husband's teaching salary stayed off the assessment altogether. Beyond approval, what mattered was shape. She wanted the fixed monthly outgoing sized against her salary, the part of her income that arrives every month, with the balance cut in lump sums when bonuses land. That is an interest-only structure with overpayments, and it set the case two tests at once: how the bonus would be recognised, and whether interest-only was available at this loan-to-value.
The Challenge
Base salary alone did not get close. At a standard multiple of around 4.5 times income, £200,000 supports roughly £900,000 of borrowing, barely half the £1,700,000 required. The bonus had to carry the balance, and this is exactly the profile that standard bonus mechanics penalise.
For a discretionary annual bonus, many lenders may recognise only 50% of a two-year average, and some may anchor to the latest year where it is lower, or cap recognised variable income at the level of base salary. Those mechanics were built for steady earners with a modest annual top-up; applied to a macro trader, the assessment ends up anchored to the weakest recent year. A two-year average of £420,000 and £180,000 comes to £300,000, and 50% of that is £150,000. Added to base, recognised income becomes £350,000, which at 4.5 times supports around £1,575,000. Short of the requirement, with the client's strongest earning years discounted away.
Our guide to bonus income mortgages → covers these mechanics.
The repayment structure narrowed the field again. Straight interest-only ceilings may sit at 60–75% LTV depending on the lender, so at just under 74% a number of lenders were excluded regardless of income. Acceptable repayment strategies vary just as sharply: some lenders may not accept sale of the mortgaged property at all, and others exclude bonuses or cash savings. At £1,700,000 the application would also face manual underwriting, with a documented multi-year bonus track record among the standard requests, as set out in our guide to large loans (£1m+).
Most of the field failed at least one of those tests: bonus recognition, interest-only at this LTV, appetite at this loan size.
How lenders treat this profession more broadly is covered in our guide to mortgages for trading professionals →
Director and Mortgage Adviser
Specialist mortgage broker for City professionals. David works with trading and investment professionals whose income is weighted toward discretionary bonuses, structuring mortgages, including interest-only arrangements, around how that income actually arrives.
Lender Strategy
We assessed the field against all three tests at once, because a lender that clears two of them is no use. Lenders whose interest-only ceilings stop at 60–65% LTV were set aside first, whatever their bonus treatment. Lenders applying a flat 50% of a two-year average went out next: as above, £350,000 of recognised income at 4.5 times leaves the case around £125,000 short. A further group fell away for excluding sale of the mortgaged property as a repayment vehicle.
The case was placed with a clearing bank from the bonus-friendly tier of our panel: a lender that may recognise a higher proportion of discretionary bonus where a longer track record is evidenced, and whose interest-only policy can run to just under 75% LTV. The difference was the averaging window: three years instead of two. Across three years the record totals £930,000, an average of £310,000. Recognised at 60%, that contributes £186,000; added to the £200,000 base, recognised income becomes £386,000, and £1,700,000 of borrowing sits at roughly 4.4 times that figure. The £180,000 year is still in the average; it simply carries a third of the weight instead of half.
Worked comparison, on the same income record
Macro trader, £200,000 base, three bonus years: £420,000 / £180,000 / £330,000
The same income record, averaged two ways.
- Base salary
- £200,000
- Bonus, latest year
- £420,000
- Bonus, year before
- £180,000
- Bonus, two years before
- £330,000
- Three-year average bonus
- £310,000
- Buying at
- Just under 74% Loan to Value (LTV)
50% of the £300,000 two-year average bonus plus £200,000 base = £350,000 recognised income; at 4.5 times, around £1,575,000.
60% of the £310,000 three-year average bonus plus £200,000 base = £386,000 recognised income; at roughly 4.4 times, £1,700,000.
The £180,000 year is still in the average; it simply carries a third of the weight instead of half.
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 a full affordability assessment.
The interest-only structure was anchored on sale of the property as the primary repayment vehicle, supported by £600,000 of day-one equity, comfortably above the minimum-equity floors that may apply to that route. The stated intention to make lump-sum capital reductions from future bonus rounds sat alongside it; a small number of lenders may also recognise future bonus receipts within a repayment strategy.
See our guide to interest-only mortgages → for how these rules differ.
The application was packaged for manual underwriting from the outset: three years' P60s and bonus award letters, payslips evidencing each award, employer confirmation of role and tenure, three months' bank statements and a full expenditure-and-assets picture. A short covering note made the central point: the client has held the same seat for twelve years and has been paid a bonus in every one of them; the variability is what P&L-linked pay looks like in an established role, and the proposed monthly commitment is covered by her base salary on its own.
The Result
The Result
A £1,700,000 interest-only mortgage agreed at just under 74% LTV, with the monthly commitment sized to base salary
£1,700,000
Loan
Just under 74%
LTV
£386,000
Recognised income (base + 60% of three-year average bonus)
Roughly 4.4×
Income multiple
First call
Day 0
Decision in Principle (DIP)
Inside the first week
Credit-approved offer
23 working days
Completion
2 months after offer
A £1,700,000 interest-only mortgage was agreed at just under 74% LTV, on a tracker with no early repayment charges and a 22-year term running to the client's planned retirement at 60. The tracker was deliberate, so the planned bonus-round capital reductions are not capped by a fixed-rate overpayment allowance. Pricing sat in line with mainstream tracker products at this loan size, and the monthly commitment sits within base salary with headroom. A Decision in Principle (DIP) came back inside the first week, the credit-approved offer followed twenty-three working days after the first call, and the purchase completed two months after the offer.
Why This Matters for Similar Clients
Traders and other markets professionals often assume a volatile bonus record caps what they can borrow, or forces a repayment structure sized off their worst year. In practice, the variability is the profile, not a flaw in it. The outcome turns on which averaging mechanics a lender applies, and whether the repayment structure matches how the income actually arrives.
What We Can Do for You
- Present a lumpy multi-year bonus history so the averaging works in your favour instead of anchoring on your weakest year
- Identify the lenders on our panel whose interest-only criteria may run to higher LTVs, and whose repayment-vehicle rules fit your position
- Structure the monthly commitment around base salary, with capital reduced when bonuses land
- Package large-loan applications for manual underwriting so a multi-year track record reads as sustainability first time
FAQs
Yes, though treatment varies widely. Lenders may recognise anywhere from 50% to 100% of bonus income depending on its regularity, the track record evidenced and the averaging period applied, so lender selection decides how much of it counts.
Variation itself is not necessarily the problem. Some lenders may anchor to a two-year average or to the latest year where it is lower, which penalises a lumpy record; others may average across three years where a longer track record is evidenced, which softens the effect of one weak year.
Potentially. Interest-only ceilings may sit anywhere from 60% to 80% LTV depending on the lender, minimum income thresholds apply, and acceptable repayment vehicles differ. A small number of lenders may even recognise future bonus receipts within a repayment strategy.
Some may accept it, subject to a minimum-equity requirement; others exclude it altogether. Which camp a lender falls into is a matter of criteria, and it can decide the placement on its own.
For bonus-led earners the appeal is cash flow: the fixed monthly commitment is sized against the salary that arrives every month, while capital is reduced in lump sums when variable income lands. Affordability is still assessed in full whichever structure you choose.
Related Case Studies
YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSESSED IF YOU DON’T KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE
Kite Mortgages is a trading style of Kite Financial Ltd which is an appointed representative of The Openwork Partnership, a trading style of Openwork Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
APPROVED BY THE OPENWORK PARTNERSHIP ON 29/07/2026
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.