Mortgage Multiples

[LondonBuyer]

Hi everyone

I'm currently looking at buying a home here in London - and as we all know prices are sky high.

Obviously one big factor which would help is to find a mortgage with the highest possible multiple of our combined salary. Long term I'm not worried as I'm in a career I can easily increase my salary 5-10% per year but short term it is the main factor in being able to afford something in the first place.

So question is what are the highest multiples everyone is coming across in the market at the moment and who is offering them?

Even if someone comes on here and says they got 10 times their salary with x bank it won't be relevant to you- Mortgage lending is not based on multiples anymore, it's based on affordability, ie your particular circumstances.

Each lender has their own way of assessing this so their online affordability calculators will give you and indication of what you'd be able to borrow- after that your best option would be to speak to a whole of market broker.

What bear said. We've recently been offered a mortgage that works out at just under 4x our joint income (DH's salary plus my self employed income) but we have been paying rent at a significantly higher sum than the mortgage repayment is for, so we're able to prove we could manage even if interest rates went up.

Hopefully do you mind my asking who your mortgage lender is, and whether you went through a broker? We're in a similar position - him employed, me self employed, and I know it can be tricky, although we haven't started looking yet.

Recently went through process.

Halifax - 5 times income was the highest I could find.

My mortgage is roughly 4.5, could have borrowed up to 5 with Halifax I believe. That is with a squeaky clean credit rating etc

We went with Virgin in January as an estate agent broker did us some initial quotes and mentioned they're good at accepting people. (We went to them direct for a quote after that in order to avoid paying the £500 broker fee!) They worked out at 4.25x our combined salary.

Halifax are known for being more accepting too.

But it will all be based on your outgoings, term of loan, how much deposit you have, age etc - everything they ask for will factor in their decision. They also have to stress test now to check you'll be able to afford it if/when rates go up.

I'd go to a range of brokers though - a whole of market adviser told us we couldn't afford anything! He was a smaller company though so I'm not sure how thoroughly he searched, as the estate agent broker had no problems finding us something.

They will all offer you free initial consultations and should give you an idea of quotes before you choose whether to go with them. They're obliged to tell you what kind of service they offer (i.e. whole of market or restricted) and if they are restricted to a panel they should tell you who's on their panel.

Santander does high multiples