Our How Much Can I Borrow Calculator is designed to answer one of the first questions a prospective home buyer must normally ask.
Finding out what the largest mortgage you are likely to be granted will, along with knowing what your total deposit is, determine what the maximum price you can spend on a property will be.
You will also want to know what your deposit is as a percentage of the whole (mortgage and deposit) sum. This can be useful, for example, if you have limited deposit sums but need to know that you can reach the 5% threshold for qualifying for Help to Buy .
These are:
1. How much combined deposit do you have?
2. What is the total salary of the 2 highest earners in your household?
3. What multiple is your lender offering?
The first question allows for you adding deposit funds from one or more people if you are intending to buy jointly, whether as joint tenants or tenants in common.
The second question determines what a lender calls your household income.
You get the answer to the third question from a lender. But we strongly suggest that, if you have not yet approached a lender, the default number to use is 4.
This, multiplied by the answer to third question, gives the maximum mortgage you are likely to get, subject to you meeting a lender's other conditions. These can be quite stringent: as a rule of thumb, a lender will not normally lend more than 4x household income, although there are exceptions.
You are now armed with:
1. An estimate of your maximum mortgage
2. The property prices you should look for
3. Your deposit %age and the loan to value %age (which together add up to 100%)
You can now look for properties and mortgage products which fit these parameters.
If you find both, congratulations from us and please contact us - we can help you with all aspects of your home move!