How much can I borrow for a mortgage?
The salary multiple is where the answer starts, not where it ends. How UK lenders actually reach a figure, what pulls it down, and why two lenders can give the same person two different numbers.
Plain-English guide · no advice, just how the market works
The short answer
Many UK lenders will lend up to around 4 to 4.5 times your annual income, and some go higher for certain applicants, such as higher earners or people with a bigger deposit. So on a £40,000 salary the rough ceiling is around £160,000 to £180,000, and on a joint income of £70,000 it is around £280,000 to £315,000.
Treat those as a ceiling, not a promise. Every lender also runs an affordability check on your real income and outgoings, and that check often decides the final figure. The Bank of England also limits how many mortgages lenders can make at 4.5 times income or more, so the higher multiples are rationed rather than standard.
What the affordability check looks at
FCA rules require lenders to check that you can afford the mortgage, not just that your salary clears a multiple. In practice that means:
- Income they can count. Basic salary usually counts in full. Bonus, overtime and commission are often counted only in part, or averaged over a period. Self-employed income is normally based on your last one to two years of figures, and lenders differ on how they treat a company director’s salary, dividends and retained profit.
- Committed outgoings. Loans, car finance, credit card balances, and for many lenders student loan repayments.
- Household costs. Childcare, the number of dependants, and typical living costs for a household like yours.
- Rate rises. Lenders must consider whether the payments would still be affordable if interest rates went up, not just at today’s rate.
The other things that move the number
Your deposit
The bigger the deposit, the lower the loan to value (LTV), and the wider the choice of lenders and rates. Most mainstream products need at least a 5% deposit, and some lenders reserve their higher income multiples for lower LTVs.
The mortgage term
A longer term lowers the monthly payment, which can help a case pass affordability, but you pay more interest overall. Most lenders cap the age you can be at the end of the term, which limits how long the term can run.
Your credit history
A missed payment, a default or a CCJ doesn’t automatically rule you out, but it narrows the lenders willing to look at the case and can affect what they will lend. Our credit history page covers the specialist end of the market.
The property itself
The lender lends against the property as well as against you. If the valuation comes in below the price, the loan is worked out on the lower figure. Some property types, such as flats above shops or non-standard construction, have their own criteria.
Why two lenders give two different answers
Each lender has its own affordability model and its own view on bonus income, self-employed figures, dependants and debts. The same person can be offered noticeably different maximums by different lenders, and an online calculator only applies a typical multiple to your salary. That gap is a large part of what a whole-of-market broker is for: they know which lenders read a case like yours generously.
An agreement in principle is the usual way to get a lender’s own indication before you apply, and it is worth asking whether it uses a soft or a hard credit search.
Questions worth asking a broker
- “Which lenders would count my income in full, including any bonus, overtime or self-employed figures?”
- “Which of my outgoings or debts is holding the figure down most?”
- “How would a bigger deposit or a different term change what I could borrow, and what it would cost overall?”
- “Will the agreement in principle use a soft search?”
The most you can borrow and the most it makes sense to borrow are different questions. A good broker will talk you through both.
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