Your Home Finance
What you can borrow is usually capped by the stress test — not the income multiple.
Before you fall for a house, it's worth knowing the real figure. Lenders test your payment at a higher rate than you'd pay, then deduct what already leaves your account each month.
30+ years
affordability advice
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Real figure
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Situation grid
What's driving your affordability question?
How your case is assessed
How lenders assess affordability
Affordability is not one calculation. Each lender chooses which parts of your income it trusts, what rate it stress-tests the payment at, and how harshly it treats your commitments — and those three choices decide your figure long before any multiple is applied.
The stress test, not the rate you'd pay
Lenders don't assess the payment on your actual initial rate. They test whether you could still afford it at a materially higher rate — usually their reversion rate plus a margin, subject to a floor. That stressed payment is what your income has to cover, which is why your figure comes back lower than a payment calculator suggests.
Committed expenditure comes off the top
Car finance, personal loans, credit card balances, childcare, school fees, maintenance payments and student loan deductions are taken off before affordability is worked out. A few hundred pounds a month of commitments can remove tens of thousands from what a lender will lend.
Which parts of your income count, and by how much
Basic salary is normally taken in full. Bonus, commission, overtime, shift allowance, car allowance, second jobs and rental income are treated very differently — some lenders take the full averaged figure, others take half, others ignore it entirely. This is often the single biggest difference between two lenders' answers.
Income multiples, term and age
Most lenders cap around 4.5 times income, with some stretching further for higher earners, lower loan-to-values or certain professions — and there are regulatory limits on how much lending sits above that level. Term length matters too: a shorter term forced by your age at the end of the mortgage raises the monthly payment and reduces the maximum loan.
You don't need to guess your figure from an online calculator — we run it across the relevant lenders, stress rate included, before any hard search.
Specialist insight
Two lenders can reach very different figures on the same income
Heavy monthly commitments · variable income discounted · term shortened by age
Tighter borrowing
Lower stressed capacity · bonus and overtime part-counted or ignored · commitments and a shorter term compress the maximum loan.
Clean commitments · full income recognised · sensible term
More borrowing capacity
Higher stressed capacity · averaged bonus and commission counted in full · broader lender choice and access to higher multiples where the case supports it.
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Your adviser
Jay Sabine
Expert mortgage adviser specialising in complex cases including adverse credit, self-employed borrowers, and first-time buyers. All advice is tailored to your individual circumstances.
Content reviewed: 3 August 2026
CeMAP awarded by The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Cert CII (MP) awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Specialist in mortgage affordability and borrowing assessments
Helping clients with complex credit histories for over 30 years · CeMAP, Cert CII (MP) · FCA regulated
“Almost everyone arrives asking about the income multiple. It's rarely the thing that stops them. The stress-tested payment and the direct debits already leaving their account get there first — and those are the two things people can still do something about.”
Reviewed by Jay Sabine · Mortgage adviser · 30+ years' experience
Lived experience
Mistakes we repeatedly see
Not theory — the patterns that keep costing buyers borrowing they could otherwise have had.
Taking car finance shortly before applying
A new PCP is the most expensive thing most buyers do to their own affordability. A payment of a few hundred pounds a month can remove a five-figure sum from the loan a lender will offer — usually far more than the car was worth waiting for.
Trusting one calculator and believing the number
Every calculator models one lender's assumptions about your income, your commitments and its own stress rate. Three calculators giving three answers isn't a fault — it's the point. None of them is your figure until the right lender's model is used.
Assuming an unused credit card limit is harmless
Some lenders assess your actual balance, others assess a percentage of the available limit whether you use it or not. A dormant card with a large limit can quietly reduce your borrowing, and closing it is sometimes the cheapest capacity you'll ever buy.
Viewing before the figure is confirmed
Emotional commitment to a house arrives faster than a lender's decision. Buyers who view at the top of a hopeful range end up either heartbroken or stretched — both avoidable by getting the number first.
Real client scenarios
Real affordability journeys
Based on genuine cases we've helped with. Personal details have been changed to protect privacy.
Settled the car finance — borrowing rose by around £60,000
- £480/month PCP
- Same income
- Commitment cleared
- Purchase proceeded
Situation
Couple on a combined income they assumed would comfortably fund their target purchase, with a car on a £480 a month agreement.
Challenge
Every affordability run came back roughly £60,000 short of the asking price, and they blamed their income rather than the direct debit.
What changed
We modelled the same case with and without the car agreement, showed the difference in black and white, and they used part of their savings to settle it before we submitted anything.
Outcome
Assessed borrowing rose to cover the purchase and the application was placed once, without a run of declines behind it.
Why it worked
Their income was never the constraint. The stressed payment plus a monthly commitment was — and only one of those two was something they could change.
Commission read in full — around £45,000 more borrowing
- Sales role
- Two-year commission history
- Lender changed
- Offer issued
Situation
Sales professional with a modest basic salary and consistent commission making up a substantial part of annual earnings.
Challenge
The first lender counted 50% of averaged commission, which put the target property out of reach despite two clean years of evidence.
What changed
We identified lenders that take 100% of averaged commission where the history is consistent, and packaged the payslips and P60s to evidence the pattern rather than the peak.
Outcome
Assessed income supported roughly £45,000 more borrowing and the purchase went ahead on a mainstream rate tier.
Why it worked
Nothing about how she earned changed. The lender's willingness to count it did — and that willingness varies enormously across the market.
What happens after you get in touch
From first contact to a clear answer
What happens when you get in touch — no hard search at this stage.
- 1
We take your income exactly as it's paid — basic, bonus, commission, overtime, self-employed profit (no hard search)
- 2
Jay runs your figures through the relevant lender models, including their stress rate and how they treat your commitments
- 3
We give you a realistic borrowing range and explain what's holding the top of it down
- 4
If proceeding: Agreement in Principle → offer with confidence → application → completion
Reassurance
- Free initial review — before any hard credit search
- We give you the honest figure, not the flattering one
- Knowing your real number before you view stops offers you can't fund
Before you enquire
What we'll ask you on the first call
Straightforward questions — no hard credit search at this stage.
- How you're paid — basic, bonus, commission, overtime, allowances, or self-employed profit
- Everything that leaves your account monthly: car finance, loans, credit card balances and limits
- Childcare costs, dependants, school fees and any maintenance payments
- Deposit available, target purchase price, and your age at the end of the mortgage term
Advisory promise
When we might tell you to wait
We won't always tell you to apply today.
We may advise waiting where clearing or settling a commitment in the next few months would widen your figure more than applying now, where your bonus or commission needs one more evidenced period to be counted in full, or where the maximum a lender will lend is more than we think you should comfortably repay.
The biggest number a lender will approve and the right number for you are not always the same, and we'll say so. We give advice — not just applications.
Straight answers
Common questions about mortgage affordability
Our promise
What we'll never do
- Tell you to apply if it won't work
- Send applications everywhere
- Recommend borrowing beyond your budget
- Hide bad news
We'd rather tell you the truthful figure now than watch you fall for a house the lender was never going to fund.
Find out what you can realistically borrow
Tell us how you're paid and what leaves your account each month — we'll give you a realistic borrowing range and explain what's capping it.
We run your figures through the lenders that actually fit you, using their stress rate and their treatment of your commitments — not a single generic calculator.
Ten minutes on your real numbers is better than three months of viewings above your funding limit.
£500 adviser fee — payable on completion.
Get Clear, Honest Mortgage Advice — Before You Apply
Free consultation • No credit search • FCA regulated
Struggled to get approved elsewhere? We specialise in complex cases including CCJs, self-employed income, and declined applications. Over 90% of our clients had concerns about their situation before speaking to us.
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How deposit, commitments and stress testing shape a first purchase budget.
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Self-employed mortgages
Which income figure lenders use when your earnings come from a business.
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Salary and dividends versus retained profit — and what it does to your figure.
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