Making partner, switching to dividends, or opening your own practice — should you buy now, or wait?

Why "should I wait" is a question mainly professionals run into

A T4 salary's history is continuous — most lenders count it from day one. Dividends, partner draws, and a newly opened practice usually need two years of history; whatever's short of that basically counts as zero in the math.

That's not a judgment on you — it's just how most standard lender formulas are built. It's not that your income isn't good enough, it's that the history isn't long enough yet.

So what actually determines how much you can borrow right now often isn't your real income — it's how long your current income structure has "existed" in a lender's formula.

Buying before the switch is usually the easiest path

As long as you're still drawing a T4 salary from your current employer, that income history is complete — even if you've already decided to make partner by year-end or open your own practice next year, as long as the switch hasn't happened yet, applying now uses the simplest form of proof.

The common mistake is waiting until everything is settled to buy — but to a lender, "settled" often means "history reset, counting from zero again." If buying was already on your plan, the period before the switch is your window, not something to avoid.

Concretely: before making partner, before formally switching to dividends, before leaving to open your own practice — that's when it's worth asking about timing, not after the switch is already done.

Already made the switch? Not a dead end — just a different set of documents

Already drawing dividends, already a partner, practice already open for a while — that's not a dead end, it just means the lender needs different paperwork: two years of T5 or T5013 slips, company financial statements, an accountant's letter confirming the income can continue. Get those together and most lenders still work with it.

Whatever's short of two years can usually be bridged with your income history from before the switch — you're not starting from zero. The specifics of documenting each income type are covered on the professionals page; not repeating that here.

This path works — it just takes a few more steps and a bit more prep time than buying before the switch.

Before you apply, check one thing people forget — how much undrawn credit you're actually carrying

A lot of professionals carry a practice line of credit that's sizeable but rarely used. The catch: many lenders calculate your debt ratio off the credit limit, not your actual balance — meaning money you've never spent still gets counted as a liability.

This isn't specific to whether you just switched to dividends or just made partner — it affects any application, at any time. But because professionals tend to carry larger limits, the impact tends to be bigger too.

Before applying, check the limit (not the balance) on every line of credit and credit card in your name, and pay down or close what you don't need. Finding this out before you apply beats finding it out the day you do.

If you've already decided to make the switch, how long should you wait

There's no single answer, but a rough guide: two years of history is the safest bet, and most lenders won't ask further questions. Around one year can work too if the income structure is simple and stable, though your options narrow. Under a year is possible, but usually only a handful of lenders will look at the file, and terms typically aren't as good.

If you're short on time and can't wait two years, that doesn't mean it can't be done — it means matching the right lender to the right paperwork. Worth running the numbers on your specific situation before deciding whether to wait at all.

Common questions