A staff engineer at a venture-backed software company approaching an initial public offering (IPO) held restricted stock units (RSUs) worth around £400,000 on paper that the lenders on our panel would not count: none had vested, and none could until the company listed. The £1,100,000 purchase was placed on his £210,000 base salary alone, at roughly 5.2 times within a high street bank's enhanced tier for higher earners, on a tracker with no early repayment charges, chosen so that the post-listing share sales could go straight into the balance. Fourteen months later the company listed; £300,000 of sale proceeds and savings came off the loan without penalty, and the remaining £800,000 was refinanced onto a five-year fixed rate at 55% loan to value (LTV), still on base salary alone.
Client Snapshot
£1,400,000
Purchase price
£1,100,000
Mortgage at purchase, just under 79% Loan to Value (LTV)
£800,000
After the post-listing reduction, 55% LTV
Staff engineer at a venture-backed UK software company, 36; three and a half years with the company · Four-bedroom Edwardian semi-detached house, Harpenden, Hertfordshire (commuter belt) · £300,000 deposit · Capital and interest throughout: a tracker with no early repayment charges over 30 years at purchase, then a five-year fixed rate over 28 years
Key constraint
Base salary at a standard multiple supported around £943,000 and the equity could not be counted by the lenders on our panel until it vested and was sold; the loan had to stand on base alone, and the product had to let a large lump sum in at any time without an early repayment charge, on an unknown date
Context
The listing date was the one thing nobody could give them. The client and his partner, a freelance illustrator a year into trading, had rented in Highbury for six years and wanted a house with a garden and a spare room for her studio; a four-bedroom Edwardian semi in Harpenden, half an hour into St Pancras for his two office days a week, came up at £1,400,000. The deposit was £300,000: savings built over eight years, including a cash sign-on paid when he joined the company and left untouched. The mortgage is in his sole name; her first-year accounts could not be assessed by the lenders in the frame, so her income is not in any figure below.
His pay was £210,000 base, no cash bonus, and RSUs granted at hire and refreshed annually. The grants were double-trigger: each tranche time-vested on schedule, but none was delivered as shares until a liquidity event, so after three and a half years he held an award worth around £400,000 at the last funding-round price that he could neither sell nor borrow against. The company had appointed banks for a listing. Whether it would be in six months or eighteen, nobody at the company would say, and they did not want to rent for another two years waiting to find out.
The Challenge
The equity was worth nothing to the lenders on our panel. Several mainstream lenders on our panel may exclude share awards from income altogether under their published criteria; those that may count RSUs generally require the shares to have vested, usually within the last twelve months, to have been sold, and the proceeds to have arrived in sterling. A double-trigger award at a private company fails every one of those tests until the listing happens. However the grant was presented, it counted for nil.
That left the base salary. £210,000 at a standard multiple of around 4.49 times supports roughly £943,000, around £157,000 short of £1,100,000. The loan needed an enhanced loan-to-income (LTI) tier, and at just under 79% LTV those tiers are gated on income level and LTV. The other half of the problem was the product. The client's plan was to put the proceeds of the first post-listing sales straight into the mortgage, and nobody could say when that would be: a fixed rate with early repayment charges (ERCs) would have put a penalty on the one thing he intended to do with the money. How lenders read RSU income, vested and unvested, 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 at private and listed technology companies, structuring purchases around base salary before a listing and the products that let post-listing proceeds reduce the loan after it.
Lender Strategy
The purchase was placed with a high street bank on our panel whose published criteria may allow up to 5.5 times income for employed borrowers above an income floor at up to 85% LTV, on a capital and interest basis. His £210,000 base cleared the floor comfortably. £1,100,000 divided by £210,000 is roughly 5.2 times, inside the tier, with the unvested RSUs disclosed in full and counted at nil. The product was a tracker with no ERCs from the same lender's range: the rate moves with the lender's reference rate, which the client accepted, in exchange for being able to repay any amount at any time without penalty. Capital and interest over 30 years was the basis available at this LTV, and the monthly payment sat inside the base salary with room for the rate to move.
Criteria correct as of October 2026. Mortgage lending policies change regularly, for the latest advice, speak to us directly.
Worked comparison, on the purchase
Staff engineer, £210,000 base, RSUs worth around £400,000 on paper
The same base salary at two tiers. The unvested RSUs count for nil on both lines.
- Base salary
- £210,000; no cash bonus
- RSU awards
- Double-trigger: time-vested but not deliverable until a listing; nil counted
- Purchase
- £1,400,000 with a £300,000 deposit
- Requirement
- £1,100,000 at just under 79% Loan to Value (LTV)
£210,000 base at around 4.49 times = roughly £943,000, short of £1,100,000.
£210,000 base at up to 5.5 times = up to £1,155,000; the £1,100,000 loan is roughly 5.2 times.
The same £210,000 base on both lines. The enhanced tier moves what it may support from roughly £943,000 to as much as £1,155,000, enough for the £1,100,000 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 company listed fourteen months after completion. The first tranche of his award was delivered as shares on the listing, with the usual lock-up before he could sell; over the following months he sold as tranches came through, with the sterling proceeds paid into his UK account: £180,000 by the time the two-year fix ended, ten months after the listing. He put £300,000 against the balance, from the sale proceeds and savings, in two payments as the sales settled, with no early repayment charge on either; the balance fell to roughly £800,000, and with the house valued at £1,450,000 the loan stood at 55% LTV.
With the paydown done, the tracker had served its purpose and the question became the cost of the remaining £800,000. The loan was refinanced onto a five-year fixed rate with a top-five UK clearing bank on our panel, on its standard range: £800,000 against the £210,000 base is roughly 3.8 times, inside a standard cap, and at 55% LTV the loan priced in a lower band than the purchase had. The vested RSUs were disclosed and, once again, not needed. A smaller group of lenders on our panel may now have counted a proportion of them, which would have widened the choice had the income been short; it was not, so the lender was chosen on product and price. The fix was chosen for the opposite reason to the tracker: the lump sums had landed, the future vests are smaller and quarterly, and five years of a fixed cost suited a household with a studio to build. Further vests go in as overpayments inside the product's annual allowance. How a remortgage with RSU income differs from the purchase is covered in our article on remortgaging with RSUs or bonus-heavy income →, and the fixed-against-tracker decision in our article on fixed versus tracker mortgages for professionals →
The Result
The Result
£1,100,000 on base salary at purchase; £800,000 at 55% LTV after the listing
£1,100,000
Purchase loan (tracker with no early repayment charges, 30-year term)
Roughly 5.2×
Multiple of the £210,000 base at purchase
£800,000
Remortgage at 55% LTV (five-year fix, 28-year term)
Roughly 3.8×
Multiple of the same base at remortgage
Decision in Principle (DIP)
2 working days
Purchase offer
18 working days after the first call
Repaid after the listing
£300,000, with no early repayment charge
Remortgage offer
3 weeks
At purchase: a £1,100,000 capital and interest mortgage at just under 79% LTV on a tracker with no early repayment charges over 30 years, at roughly 5.2 times the £210,000 base salary, priced in the high street range for this LTV. A Decision in Principle (DIP) came back in two working days, the offer eighteen working days after the first call, and completion seven weeks after that. Two years on, after £300,000 of repayments without penalty: an £800,000 capital and interest remortgage at 55% LTV on a five-year fixed rate over 28 years, at roughly 3.8 times the same base salary, priced in the lender's standard range for this LTV; offer in three weeks, with the tracker repaid on completion and nothing owed on the way out. For borrowing at this scale more broadly, see our guide to large loans (£1m+) →
Why This Matters for Similar Clients
Engineers at private companies approaching a listing often assume one of two wrong things: that the equity will help the application, or that they must wait for the listing before buying at all. Under their published criteria, lenders on our panel generally treat unvested or undeliverable equity as nil, however large the paper value, so the purchase has to stand on salary, and for a senior engineer that may mean an enhanced tier on base alone. What the listing changes is the balance, provided the product lets the money in: a tracker with no early repayment charges turns the first post-listing sales into a straight reduction of the loan on whatever date they arrive, and the refinance that follows is priced on a smaller loan at a lower LTV, still on base salary. Counting the RSUs as income is a separate question, for the client whose base does not carry the loan; which lenders may count vested RSUs, at what percentage and on what conditions, is covered in our equity compensation mortgage guide →
What We Can Do for You
- Establish what your base salary alone may support across the enhanced tiers on our panel, before a listing date exists
- Choose a product with no early repayment charges where the plan is to repay a large sum on a date nobody can fix, and a fix once the sum has landed
- Map the lock-up and sale schedule after a listing against the refinance, so the lower balance and LTV are priced in as soon as they exist
- Set up the refinance so further vests go in as overpayments inside the allowance
- Package grant letters, the equity-platform schedule, sale confirmations and bank credits so an underwriter can trace each tranche to the sterling it became
FAQs
Generally no. Lenders on our panel generally treat unvested equity, and shares that cannot yet be delivered or sold, as nil for income purposes, however large the paper value. Some lenders may count RSUs once they have vested and been sold, on conditions.
Not necessarily. If your base salary supports the purchase, including through an enhanced loan-to-income tier where a lender's income floor and LTV limits allow, you can buy now and revisit the structure once the equity has vested and been sold.
Once tranches have vested, been sold and the sterling proceeds have arrived in a UK account, some lenders may count a proportion of them, commonly around 50%, where vesting is documented as continuing. Where the base salary already carries the loan, that recognition is not needed; what the listing changes is how much of the balance the sale proceeds can clear.
A tracker with no early repayment charges lets you repay any amount at any time without penalty, which suits a plan to put share-sale proceeds into the mortgage on a date you cannot fix. The trade is a rate that moves with the lender's reference rate; a fixed rate suits the position after the lump sums have landed.
Potentially, within a fixed product's overpayment allowance, or in any amount on a product with no early repayment charges. A lower balance can also move the loan into a lower LTV band at the refinance.
Grant letters for each award, the vesting schedule from the equity platform showing past and future tranches, sale confirmations for each tranche sold, bank statements showing the sterling credits, and payslips and P60s for the base salary.
