Mortgage after an IVA: the honest timeline
Buying a home is the goal that keeps most people going through an IVA, and it is also the one surrounded by the most myths. The truth sits somewhere between the pessimists, who say you must wait six years, and the adverts that make it sound instant. This guide walks through the honest timeline: what is realistic straight after completion, how your options widen year by year, and what changes on the day the IVA leaves your credit file.
Free to use, no obligation. The plan itself won't affect your credit score.
Written and reviewed by the AfterMy team
Last reviewed: July 2026
Quick answer
You do not have to wait six years after an IVA to get a mortgage. Once your IVA has completed, some specialist lenders will consider an application within a year or two of completion, occasionally sooner, usually with a larger deposit. Your options keep widening as time passes and your clean payment history grows, and once the IVA marker leaves your credit file, six years from the date it started or on your completion date if it ran longer, mainstream lenders come back into reach. It is a broker market: the lenders who accept recent IVAs mostly work through intermediaries, so the right specialist mortgage broker matters more than anything else.
On this page
First, an honest word on how we help
AfterMy is a credit broker, not a lender, and we are not a mortgage broker either. We do not advise on or arrange mortgages ourselves. What we do is introduce you to a regulated specialist mortgage broker from our panel, who handles your mortgage from there. This guide exists so you understand the landscape before that introduction and know roughly what to expect at each stage.
Key point
We introduce you to a specialist mortgage broker. The mortgage advice itself always comes from them.
How long after an IVA can you get a mortgage?
There is no fixed waiting period, and the six year wait is a myth. While the IVA marker is still on your credit file your options sit with specialist lenders rather than the high street, and some of those will consider you within a year or two of completing your IVA, occasionally sooner. Every lender sets its own criteria, so nobody can honestly promise you a date. What is true across the market is the direction: the further you are from completion, the more lenders will look at you, and the better the terms tend to become.
Key point
Some specialist lenders will consider you within a year or two of completion. Nobody honest promises a date.
The honest timeline, stage by stage
Just completed: a mortgage is possible but hardest here. Expect specialist lenders only, a larger deposit, and close attention to your recent payment record. The years after completion: each year of clean history since your IVA opens more doors, and the deposit lenders ask for tends to ease. The day the marker leaves your file: the IVA disappears six years from the date it started, or on your completion date if the arrangement ran longer than six years, which is common after extensions. From that day your file no longer shows the IVA, and mainstream lenders and their full ranges come back into reach. One honest caveat: some application forms ask whether you have ever been insolvent, and if a form asks, you must answer truthfully even after the marker has gone.
What mortgage lenders look at after an IVA
Four things carry most of the weight. Time since completion: more lenders, and better terms, the further past your IVA you are. Deposit: while the IVA is recent, expect to need more than a standard buyer, often somewhere in the region of 15 to 30 per cent depending on the lender, easing back toward normal as time passes. Your recent record: lenders want to see clean, on time payments since your IVA, which is where the rebuilding you have done really pays off. Affordability: your income and outgoings face the same checks as any other borrower.
Key point
Time since completion, deposit size, a clean recent record and affordability decide most applications.
Why the right broker matters
The lenders who consider recent IVAs mostly do not deal with the public directly: you reach them through a mortgage broker. A specialist who works with adverse credit every day knows which lender fits your exact dates and deposit, so you apply where you are likely to be accepted instead of collecting declines and hard searches on the file you have worked to rebuild. That is exactly why we introduce you to a specialist rather than pointing you at a comparison site.
Get your completion certificate and reports ready
An underwriter will not treat your IVA as finished until your file and paperwork say so. That means two jobs before any application. First, your completion certificate from your insolvency practitioner: these can take a few months to arrive after your final payment, so chase early if you are planning to buy. Second, your credit reports: check all three agencies show the IVA as completed with the right dates and every included debt at a zero balance, because an out of date report can undo years of patience at the worst possible moment.
Frequently asked questions
How long after an IVA can I get a mortgage?
Do I have to wait until the IVA has left my credit file?
Will I need a bigger deposit?
Can AfterMy arrange my mortgage?
Do I have to tell lenders about my IVA once it has gone from my file?
Ready when you are
Your Comeback Plan maps your completion date and the day your marker leaves your file, then, when the time is right, we can introduce you to a specialist mortgage broker from our panel. No pressure, no jargon.