How to Buy Bigger

Mickey666

I seem to remember struggling against something like 2.5x one salary + a second salary or 3x total joint salary (hazy memory!) as a mortgage lending criteria as a FTB in the early 80s.  Basically much lower multiples than today but your base rates graph shows exactly why!  Even having lived through those double-figure rates it's still a bit scary to see them presented in comparison to today.

But even those high rates didn't seem to stifle house price inflation and we all seemed to survive.  Perhaps because web forums weren't a thing back then so we had no 'crashy' to point out the doom and gloom that all house buyers were letting themselves in for

GDB2222

When I started work in 1970's, mortgages were 3 x main income, possibly plus 1 x the lower income. The result was not unhappiness. The result was that house prices were lower than now, and it was easier to afford to buy a house.

Furthermore, as there was high inflation, salaries rose to make the mortgage repayments more affordable after the first couple of years.