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When you apply for a mortgage, the amount you'll be allowed to borrow will be capped at a multiple of your household income.
Broadly speaking, most lenders will allow you to borrow between 3.5 and 5 times your annual earnings.
This means if you're buying a home with your partner and you earn £30,000 each (£60,000 in total), you might be able to borrow between £210,000 and £300,000, subject to meeting the lender's other affordability criteria.
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Use our mortgage borrowing calculator to get a rough idea of how much you might be able to borrow when applying for a home loan, or look at our other mortgage calculators.
Once you have a rough idea of what you can borrow, you can work out what loan-to-value ratio you may qualify for based on what you have saved for a deposit and check which mortgage rates are on offer.
The deals you're offered when applying for a mortgage will usually be affected by the loan-to-value ratio or 'LTV'. This is the percentage of the property price that you're borrowing compared with how much you're putting in yourself.
If you have a 10% deposit, your LTV will be 90% as your mortgage will need to cover 90% of the property price. With a 15% deposit, your LTV will be 85%, and so on.
Lenders will set a maximum LTV for each deal they offer - for example, a particular interest rate may only be available to those with an LTV of 75% or below.
In general, the lower your LTV (i.e. the more money you're putting in yourself), the lower the mortgage rate, and the cheaper the overall deal, which could help you pass the affordability assessments lenders have to conduct.
Bank of England guidelines mean lenders can only offer 15% of new mortgages at four-and-a-half times earnings or higher.
But it is sometimes possible to borrow more if you meet certain criteria.
Some mortgage lenders will offer larger amounts to people in certain professions, those with bigger deposits, or those with higher earnings.
If you think you'll need to borrow a bit more to afford your home purchase, you should consider talking to a mortgage broker.
A mortgage broker will have the best overview of the mortgage market and can help you find lenders that may be willing to lend you more based on your specific circumstances.
When deciding how much to lend you, a mortgage provider will do an affordability assessment.
Essentially, this means looking at the amount you typically earn in a month compared with how much you spend, and working out whether you can afford the mortgage repayments at the rate offered and if rates were to rise.
Lenders are also interested in the types of things you spend your money on. Some expenses (e.g. a gym membership) can be quickly cut back, while others such as childcare are less flexible.
Your lender will ask about things such as:
Don't be tempted to bend the truth - the lender will check what you say against recent bank statements and wage slips. See our guide on applying for a mortgage for more details on the documents you'll need for an application.
If you're self-employed, it can be tough to convince lenders you're a safe bet due to a lack of regular payslips or a contract of employment. But our guide on mortgages for self-employed buyers will help you through the process.
As mentioned, you’ll need to prove that you can afford your mortgage if interest rates rise.
Lenders do this by assessing whether you could afford the mortgage with a rate a few percentage points above the actual rate offered.
This often means testing whether you could afford monthly repayment rates of 8-9%, even if your actual deal is lower. These stress rates can make it harder for many buyers, especially first-time buyers, to borrow the amount they need.
However, this has become slightly easier in the first half of 2025, with many major lenders having reduced their stress test rates, meaning applicants may now qualify to borrow more than they could previously.
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