Affordability
First-time buyer affordability check
Scenario
Priya and Sam earn a combined £72,000 before tax and have saved a £45,000 deposit. They want to know the upper edge of a sensible search budget before speaking to a broker.
Assumptions
- Illustrative lender income multiple: 4.5x combined gross income.
- Monthly comfort check uses an estimated £1,800 maximum mortgage payment.
- Repayment estimate uses a 25-year term at 4.8% interest.
- This is not a lender decision or mortgage advice.
Worked example
Full calculation
- \(B_{estimate}\)
- borrowing estimate
- \(I_{gross}\)
- combined gross annual income
- \(k\)
- income multiple
- \(V_{budget}\)
- estimated property budget
- \(D\)
- deposit
- \(\operatorname{LTV}\)
- loan-to-value percentage
Estimate borrowing from income
Multiply combined gross income by the illustrative income multiple.
\[£72{,}000 \times 4.5 = £324{,}000\]Add the deposit to estimate a property budget
The purchase budget combines the mortgage estimate with the deposit cash.
\[£324{,}000 + £45{,}000 = £369{,}000\]Check loan-to-value
LTV helps show how much of the property price would be funded by the mortgage.
\[£324{,}000 / £369{,}000 \times 100 = 87.8\%\]Sense-check the estimated payment
A £324,000 mortgage over 25 years at 4.8% gives an estimated payment of about £1,857, which is above the £1,800 comfort check.
- Income-based borrowing estimate
- £324,000
- Estimated property budget
- £369,000
- Estimated LTV
- 87.8%
- Estimated monthly payment
- About £1,857
- Based on 25 years at 4.8%, before fees and lender checks.
Final result
The income multiple points to a £369,000 purchase budget, but the payment check suggests Priya and Sam may want to test a slightly lower price or a larger deposit.