Figures from Bradford & Bingley have revealed that interest in self-cert mortgages rose by 39 per cent year-on-year, with further demand assured thanks to the increase in the number of Britons who are either self-employed or engaged in flexible working patterns.

The modern lifestyle demands more flexibility, and self-cert mortgages seem to offer that for a section of the market, as the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) has suggested this month.

The AMI said that such products represented a "valuable part of the market", allowing those with less conventional incomes to get onto the housing ladder.

But Bradford & Bingley added that the market remained difficult to assess.

 
"This market is difficult to quantify as there are no industry definitions of self-cert lending," a financial report from the bank noted.And the self-employed remain confident about their prospects this year despite recent interest rate rises, with the latest Kensington Self-Employed Index showing that 67 per cent of the sector were positive about their futures – up three per cent from the first quarter of the year.