What can i borrow?

Joeread

Hi

Myself and my girlfriend are looking to get a house together but we are not sure what house we can afford as some online bank calculators say we can borrow between £395,000 to £420,000 but these quick online calculators seem to vague and with a £25,000 gap between the online calculators can you go with what they say...

Is there a way of actually getting an idea of how much you can borrow without getting a mortgage in principal?

Thank you

kingstreet

Yes. Use an intermediary site calculator and put the right data in the right boxes.

Try this as an example;-

https://rbsintermediaries.hdddirectsolutions.co.uk/Natwest?view=int&extcam=furl-intermediarysolutions

Enter gross annual basic salary in the first income box.

Enter half of any overtime, bonus or commission in the other.

Enter in outgoings;-

loan payments
HP/PCP/lease
childcare
maintenance
student loans
loans from employers for travels season tickets
employer car scheme costs
ground rent and service charges
3% of HTB equity loan (if using it and choose "yes" to shared equity at top)
credit card balances.

If you can't trust your ability to input, ask an independent broker to do it for you.

Joeread

Thank You for getting back so quickly, the issue isn't if we can afford it it is what the banks will lend us, as we are wanting to look for houses we have no idea what price house to look for as the online calculators are all over the place.

If they say they could lend you a certain amount is that 100% accurate?

LRmortgage

Different lenders will lend you different amounts. So it’s not a problem that they are giving you different results.

Do 3 lenders and you’ll likely get 3 different results etc.

Generally, as long as you are inputting the data correctly and accurately, then the calculators are on the money. Most lenders underwriters use the same calculators that are publicy available, especially on the intermediary sites as KingStreet says above.

If you’re not confident in completing them correctly, or you pay is not straight forward (self employed, overtime, bonus, variable etc) then go to a local broker and they’ll help you calculate your maximum borrowing.

ACG

As above, £25k difference is not unheard of.