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Original poster

What is your definition of a 'big mortgage'?

56 replies

magicalkitty · 14/08/2023 21:18

I heard someone say £100k is a 'big mortgage' with house prices today that seems quite small to me as huh would need a big deposit to only borrow £100k, unless you are buying a very small property in a cheap area.

It got me wondering, what is a big mortgage? Mine started at £210k and I thought that was about average?

OP posts:
TheThingIsYeah · 14/08/2023 22:20

£100k might have been big 25 years ago but feels like loose change now.

Mixedmixed · 14/08/2023 22:23

Over £1m

Leftlegwest · 14/08/2023 22:26

Ours is about £210k. It's not big. If we could move to a house the size we would like our mortgage would be about £500k.

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frozendaisy · 14/08/2023 22:30

Over 40% of your take home pay?

Getabloominmoveon · 14/08/2023 22:31

Our first mortgage was 50k, then 90k. But then we had an 800k mortgage when our joint salaries were around 300k+ 16 years ago. Then we downsized to a 540k mortgage 10 years ago, and have now almost paid that off - got the funds, just waiting for fixed term to end next year. Admittedly we are now high earners (late 50s) and also benefited from low interest rates. But it’s all about the multiple of your joint earnings which in our case has changed significantly over time.

frozendaisy · 14/08/2023 22:32

It's about percentages surely not actual amounts? Different wages/different sized properties/different areas.

Totalwasteofpaper · 14/08/2023 22:38

Mumsnet is the kind of place where 100k is a big mortgage and everyone is concerned as their mortgage is going up to a whopping £650 pm.

Back in reality everyone i know has massive mortgages like 2k pm minimum or they are spending the se on rent. Ours is large but affordable its under 3 x combined salaries, but still chunky enough as a £ amount.

For me a large mortgage means you are feeling pressured by affordablitiy / it weoghs on you / you worry about the sustainability of it all.

Meatus · 14/08/2023 22:42

At one stage, my monthly mortgage was £5,404. I think that’s pretty huge.

OhSmitty · 14/08/2023 22:53

Well, I've just done an affordability calculator for us and it came to £380k mortgage is the max we could lend and this would cost around £2275pm at today's rates. Wow that is so much money.
We took out a £120k mortgage when we moved last year, it was the most we felt comfortable taking out.

OhSmitty · 14/08/2023 22:56

And to answer your question anything over £300k seems big to me (on my wage), once you're getting close to £500k that's way too much to be beholden to the bank for IMO. If you earning very well, I guess you'd have a different view.

CyberCritical · 14/08/2023 23:02

@OhSmitty I just did one inspired by your post and max we could borrow is £468,350 which would be just over £3k a month repayments. Holy shit, that would give me the stress. Our mortgage currently is just over £40k remaining and payments £460 a month but we overpay to reduce the term.

OnceUponAThread · 14/08/2023 23:16

Our mortgage is £515k. So huge, but it's affordable (on our salaries) and less than we'd pay in rent. It's also only 35% LTV, and fixed at a relatively reasonable rate.

DramaAlpaca · 14/08/2023 23:39

CyberCritical · 14/08/2023 21:24

Anything over 30% of your household income would be high in my eyes.

Yes, this is my benchmark too.

OsirisservesAnubis · 14/08/2023 23:48

Monthly payment being more than 1/3 of your take home.

hopsalong · 14/08/2023 23:55

It's not entirely relative. I don't think anyone would describe a 200k mortgage as 'big' even if the home owners had very low incomes.

Conversely, a mortgage of a million plus seems like a big mortgage to me regardless of the earning potential of the borrowers.

And to the extent that it IS relative, it's partly dependent on age. Our mortgage (having bought a bigger house) is the same in our mid-40s as it was in our mid-30s, and that's relatively bigger (depressingly)!

LBOCS2 · 15/08/2023 00:23

I think big depends on affordability, I suspect anyone who has stretched their borrowing to the limit in the last few years is feeling like their mortgage is pretty big now that interest rates are rising.

We have a relatively large mortgage but it's just over half of what we 'could' borrow and it's at 50% LTV - we haven't overstretched ourselves. We're feeling very grateful for that decision as part of our mortgage product comes off its fixed rate next summer and the other half in 2025 so our repayments will be going up significantly.

DrCoconut · 15/08/2023 00:24

I can't get or afford a £100k mortgage so to me it is big. I bought a house worth less than that because it's what I can afford. I know I am in a cheap area though and in some places it's different.

mondaycando1 · 15/08/2023 00:35

Am about, after divorce, to take on a mortgage of £120k, about 35% LTV on a flat. Mortgage plus seevice charge will be about 33% of my net pay, anything more would have seemed huge to me. I will paying this til am 75!

CatsOnTheChair · 15/08/2023 07:42

hopsalong · 14/08/2023 23:55

It's not entirely relative. I don't think anyone would describe a 200k mortgage as 'big' even if the home owners had very low incomes.

Conversely, a mortgage of a million plus seems like a big mortgage to me regardless of the earning potential of the borrowers.

And to the extent that it IS relative, it's partly dependent on age. Our mortgage (having bought a bigger house) is the same in our mid-40s as it was in our mid-30s, and that's relatively bigger (depressingly)!

A 200k mortgage is HUGE when that sort of money buys you a 4 bed detached is a decent area.
I'd hazard a guess that most mortgages round here are way under 200k.

tescocreditcard · 15/08/2023 08:00

If your mortgage bill is bigger than your food bill you've got a big mortgage.

RedHelenB · 15/08/2023 08:13

InTheFutilityRoomEatingBiscuits · 14/08/2023 21:22

When I was working 40 hours a week and bringing home just under £750 a month, my £736 a month mortgage was a big mortgage. But they still let me borrow it.

How did that happen? Or did you have a partner who also brought in money?

kirinm · 15/08/2023 08:13

We will need to borrow £500k plus. That feels huge to me.

TinaHerts · 11/03/2024 22:06

tescocreditcard · 15/08/2023 08:00

If your mortgage bill is bigger than your food bill you've got a big mortgage.

Is this a serious post? Lol.

EconomyClassRockstar · 11/03/2024 22:09

To me, big mortgage just means one where you’d lose your house if you lost your job. Ie one you can’t really afford and that could be any amount.

potaytopotahto33 · 11/03/2024 22:15

Outside London more than 4 times the 'median' joint income for the area + 10% deposit.
Here in Manchester the median about 35K - so a 'big' mortgage is 300K+.
In London it seems to be more 8 times - a lot of big salaries and inherited wealth.
The median London salary is apparently only 44K, but I think 70K and even 6 figures are very achievable. 70K joint takes us to about 600K as the entry point to a 'big' mortgage.