Mortgages for income that needs explaining
Self-employed, company owner, retired on a foreign pension, paid in three currencies, or all four at once. These are the files other brokers hand back. They are the ones we are built for.
A difficult file, put in front of every lender we work with
You send your information once. We take it to the lenders on our panel, bring back what each will offer, and set the terms out side by side in English.
No fee from us
We are paid by the bank that funds your mortgage. You are never invoiced and nothing is deducted from your loan.
No worse rate
Our commission comes out of the lender’s side. Using us does not make the mortgage more expensive than going to that bank directly.
One contact throughout
The same person from first question to deed, working in English across whatever time zone you are in.
Why this is our page and not a paragraph on someone else’s site
Most mortgage brokers are set up around a salary and a payslip. When a file arrives with three years of company accounts, a US tax return and a pension statement in a fourth currency, the honest ones say no and the rest submit it badly and hope. Our sister firm is an accounting practice that reads exactly these documents every working day.
Situations we handle regularly
Self-employed and freelance
Two or three years of returns, income that moves year to year, and legitimate deductions that make your taxable profit look smaller than your actual capacity. The gap between those two numbers is where the work is.
Company owners and directors
Salary plus dividends, retained profit, a holding structure, or income spread across more than one entity. An underwriter needs to see the whole picture assembled, not a payslip that understates it.
US citizens and green card holders
IRS returns instead of payslips, LLC and S-corp pass-through income, and FATCA reporting that narrows the lender panel. Our most common nationality and the one most often turned away elsewhere.
Retirees on foreign pensions
State, occupational and private pensions are lendable income. The questions are permanence, currency and how long the term can run given your age at maturity.
Multi-currency earners
Income in euros, dollars and sterling at the same time is not exotic to us. It needs consistent evidence and a clear explanation of which income is durable.
Recent movers to Portugal
You have arrived, you have a NIF, and you have almost no Portuguese financial history. Lenders will look at your home-country record instead — if it is presented to them properly.
What we do that a lender-facing form cannot
An application is a translation problem before it is a credit problem.
- We work out which of your income streams an underwriter will treat as durable, and which will be discounted, before anything is submitted.
- We restate self-employed and company income in the terms a Portuguese underwriter uses, with an accountant’s letter behind it.
- We sequence the file so the explanation arrives with the document, rather than after a query.
- We know which lenders on our panel are comfortable with which structures — and which will decline on sight regardless of the numbers.
More work up front, fewer surprises later
A proper look first
We ask for more at the start than most brokers do, because the answer to what is possible lives in the detail rather than the headline.
We build the narrative
Your income gets set out with the supporting documents in an order that answers the underwriter’s questions before they are asked.
Targeted, not scattergun
We approach the lenders whose criteria fit your structure. Spraying an unusual file across the market produces declines that then sit on your record.
We stay on it
Complex files attract follow-up questions. We handle them, rather than forwarding them to you with a deadline.
Complex income FAQs
I am self-employed and my taxable profit is low. Can I still borrow?
Often yes. Lenders assess sustainable income rather than a single line on a return, and there are legitimate ways to evidence capacity that a bare tax figure understates — consistent drawings, retained profit, an accountant’s attestation. What matters is presenting it properly and not overstating it.
Can I use income from my own company?
Yes. Salary, dividends and in some cases retained profit can all be considered, depending on your shareholding and how long the company has been trading. Two to three years of accounts is the usual expectation.
I am an American with LLC income. Is that a problem?
It is a complication rather than a problem. Pass-through income needs presenting so an underwriter can see what actually reaches you, and FATCA reporting means some lenders are more comfortable than others. We know which.
I am retired. Am I too old to get a mortgage in Portugal?
Age caps the term rather than eligibility. Lenders set a maximum age at maturity, so an older borrower is offered a shorter term, which raises the monthly payment and tightens affordability. It is a real constraint but it is arithmetic, not a refusal.
My income is in dollars and the mortgage is in euros. Does that count against me?
Lenders will consider foreign-currency income, sometimes applying a discount for exchange risk. The more important question is your own: you are taking on a euro liability funded by non-euro income, and it is worth deciding deliberately how you will manage that.
I was declined elsewhere. Is it worth trying again?
Usually, and it is worth telling us. Knowing which lender declined and why saves time and stops us walking into the same wall. A decline based on presentation is a very different thing from a decline based on affordability.
General information about how lenders assess income in Portugal. Not a credit offer and not a recommendation. What is available to you depends on the lender and your circumstances.
If your income takes a paragraph to explain, start here
Tell us how you are actually paid. We will tell you honestly whether it works, and what it would take.