FTB: how much (est) can we borrow?

morg_monster

Hi. BF and I are 27 yr old FTBs looking to buy in the summer. I have an income of 25k (medical research quango) and he is on 46k (cabinet office). I haven't got round to getting our credit records yet but we should both be pretty spotless. No checks since Oct when we opened a joint account, we are both on electoral roll and both have CCs which are paid off in full each month. Only loans we have are student loans. Our deposit... Well between us by the summer we should have about £15k... there may be more from my parents but we don't know how much and depends on whether we're engaged by then! (pls no need to express opinions on this!) So it isn't certain but lets assume 15k to give a "worst case" scenario.

We are renting in SW london at the moment, looking to buy something with 2 beds hopefully in Kingston borough area (surbiton, kingston, chessington, ewell etc) which is quite a pricey area. I really don't have much of a clue about how much we can borrow, some friends have said they were offered massive multiples (obv before credit crunch!) and the online calculators where you give just income and outstanding credit details they tell us around 2.5X or 3x.

Can anyone give me a estimate of what we might be offered in the current atmosphere? We're starting to look on rightmove and use propertybee to get an idea of the market in the areas we fancy but have no real clue of what properties it is reasonable to be looking at, realistically. I know we can get a broker etc but feel it is a bit early for that yet and just want a general idea to let us know whether we need to overhaul our thinking about what we can afford!

Thanks ever so much peeps.

herbiesjp

A good rule of thumb would be 4 times your income with a spotless credit file.

Some may give more and other less, but it will also depend on which lender is offering you the best deal in terms of rate and mortgage features you require