How can anyone afford to get a mortgage when banks supposedly only loan out x3.5 of your yearly salary?

[TwixBix1]

Most people when talking about buying a house always complain about how difficult and long it was to save up enough for the deposit (which is 5% minimum but can be more)..

Yet to me, it seems the deposit isn't too bad and it's finding a mortgage that'll cover the rest which is impossibe.

Say I wanted to buy a £250k flat/house and I pay 20k deposit towards it. That means the mortgage should cover 230k.. if banks only give mortgages up to x3.5 of your salary, surely I''d need to be earning at least £65,000 to get a mortgage for a measly 250k flat or house?

If that's the case, I feel like very few people would be homeowners..

Aside from having a joint mortgage, what's a way to get around this?

And my mortgage payment is still £300 a month less than I was paying in rent!

We managed by having a bigger deposit saved and buying a much cheaper house than 250k!

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful and detailed answers - I got a lot more replies than I thought I would :)

Thanks also to @ClaudiaWankleman - you are very correct.

@LordEmsworth I DO live in an expensive area. I felt no need to state this in the original post as you state - the fact I've said it's 250k yet "measly" should indicate that to anyone with an ounce of common sense. I wouldn't default assume everyone's a diva expecting a mansion. In fact, my area is so expensive, it's often in the news as being comparable and sometimes even more expensive than London and was one of the top 5 cities listed to have had the biggest price rises since the 1990s. When I say "measly" 250k flat - I mean just that - literally a 1 bedroom flat for that price around here (I checked the listings before posting). Think you're being very over sensitive and have some sort of inferiority complex that you think me posting about a measly 250k property (in my area) is somehow intended as an insult on you, as a random homeowner off the internet of a property less than 250k, probably in a very different part of the UK to me.. very odd.

Also very strange that you're insulting me for having done no research when the whole point of this thread is for research..! I've not even once claimed to know it all (or else why would I make this thread) and it was in fact a bank mortgage advisor who told me about the x3.5 multiplier - regardless of whether it's correct or not, very weird thing for you to get angry about.