First-Time Buyer Loans Above 4.5× Income Jump 66% as Higher-Earner Borrowing Expands

The number of UK first-time buyers taking mortgages above 4.5 times income increased 66% to 45,800 during 2025, according to analysis reported by the Financial Times. The change is particularly relevant to affluent first-time buyers in London and the South East, where a strong salary can still leave a substantial gap between conventional mortgage capacity and the price of an appropriate home.

The development follows changes to the way the Bank of England's high loan-to-income framework is being implemented. The underlying financial-stability safeguard remains: policymakers continue to target an aggregate limit under which no more than 15% of new residential lending should be at loan-to-income ratios of 4.5 or above.

What has changed is the flexibility available to individual lenders. The Prudential Regulation Authority has allowed eligible firms to opt into an interim modification that removes the previous firm-level requirement to keep their own high-LTI lending below 15%, while regulators continue to monitor the aggregate market position.

That has created more room for individual lenders to decide where higher income multiples make sense within their own risk appetite. The result is not unlimited borrowing. It is a more differentiated market in which the right borrower can sometimes access materially more than the traditional 4 to 4.5 times income assumption.

4.5 Times Income Is Not a Universal Mortgage Ceiling

The idea that a mortgage lender will simply multiply salary by four or four-and-a-half and stop there remains deeply embedded in the home-buying process.

For many borrowers, that remains a reasonable broad guide. It is no longer an accurate description of the full residential mortgage market.

Some lenders are prepared to go beyond 4.5 times income where their underwriting indicates that the borrower can support the debt. The criteria can include minimum income levels, particular loan-to-value limits, occupation, age, mortgage term, credit profile or other affordability requirements.

This matters disproportionately to higher earners because a relatively small change in the income multiple produces a large change in borrowing capacity when the salary itself is substantial.

This Is Particularly Relevant in London and the South East

A professional earning £120,000 or £150,000 can look highly affluent by national income standards and still find that conventional mortgage mathematics does not reach the property they want to buy in London.

The problem becomes particularly visible where the buyer has built a respectable deposit but property values remain high relative to income.

A solicitor may earn £140,000 but need £800,000 or £900,000 of debt to buy an appropriate London home. A doctor or dentist may have strong and relatively predictable future earnings but only recently reached their current salary. A City professional can have £170,000 of base income plus a substantial annual bonus that different lenders assess in very different ways.

For those borrowers, applying a generic 4.5 times multiple before investigating the lender market can understate what may actually be achievable.

The Commercially Interesting Buyer Is Often Not Income-Constrained in the Conventional Sense

The higher-income first-time buyer can have a peculiar mortgage problem.

They may have excellent long-term career prospects, strong monthly disposable income and a meaningful deposit. The constraint can simply be that they have not yet accumulated the housing equity that an existing homeowner might bring to the same purchase.

An established homeowner buying a £1m property may have £400,000 of equity from a previous home. A first-time buyer on a considerably higher salary can be attempting to enter the same market with a deposit accumulated from earnings alone.

That is why high income multiples can be particularly important for first-time buyers. They allow some of the imbalance between income strength and limited accumulated housing equity to be addressed through the mortgage rather than requiring the buyer to wait several more years to build a larger deposit.

Which Borrowers Can Benefit Most?

The Profession Can Matter, but It Does Not Replace Affordability

Some mortgage propositions explicitly target professionals or borrowers with particular qualifications and career paths. Others do not have a branded professional mortgage but can still offer higher income multiples where their general affordability model supports them.

The underlying logic is understandable. A newly qualified professional in their early thirties can have a different income trajectory from a borrower whose earnings have remained static for many years.

But no borrower should assume that being a doctor, solicitor, accountant or banker automatically produces a six-times-income mortgage.

The lender still needs to establish that the mortgage is affordable. Existing loans, credit cards, student-loan deductions, childcare, school fees, dependants, committed expenditure and the proposed mortgage term can all materially alter the outcome.

Profession and earnings trajectory can influence the lender's approach. They do not make expenditure disappear.

A Higher Multiple Can Change the Deposit Problem

For some buyers, the binding constraint is the deposit. For others, it is income multiple. The distinction matters.

Consider a purchaser with a £200,000 deposit seeking a £1m property. They require an £800,000 mortgage at 80% LTV.

If their income is £160,000, an £800,000 loan equates to 5 times income. A lender restricted in practice to 4.5 times would reduce the mortgage to around £720,000, leaving an £80,000 gap even though the buyer already has a 20% deposit.

Finding a lender comfortable with the higher income multiple can therefore solve a problem that adding another five percentage points of deposit does not necessarily solve efficiently.

Conversely, a borrower may qualify on income but still lack the deposit required by the relevant high-LTI product. Loan-to-income and loan-to-value need to work simultaneously.

High-LTI Lending Does Not Mean Underwriting Standards Have Disappeared

The regulatory changes have created more flexibility, but the underlying financial-stability framework remains deliberately cautious around highly indebted households.

The Financial Policy Committee continues to target an aggregate position under which high-LTI mortgages at 4.5 times income or above do not account for more than 15% of total new residential mortgage lending from lenders above the relevant threshold.

The 2026 regulatory proposals are intended to give individual firms more flexibility to determine how much high-LTI lending they want to undertake when the overall market remains within that aggregate constraint.

That is different from removing the restriction altogether.

It allows one lender to concentrate more heavily on higher-income first-time buyers, for example, while another lender may choose to do very little lending above 4.5 times income.

That difference in strategy is precisely why shopping only one or two banks can produce a very misleading view of borrowing capacity.

Two Buyers on the Same Salary Can Receive Very Different Answers

Income multiple is only one component of mortgage underwriting.

Two first-time buyers earning £150,000 can have materially different maximum loans even with the same deposit.

One may have no dependants, minimal committed expenditure and straightforward employment income. Another may have school fees, significant unsecured borrowing, maintenance commitments or a much shorter available mortgage term.

Likewise, two lenders can reach different conclusions on the same borrower because they calculate affordability differently and have different policies around high-LTI lending.

That is why quoting a maximum multiple in isolation can be misleading.

Bonus Income Can Be Worth Tens of Thousands of Pounds of Mortgage Capacity

Variable remuneration becomes particularly important for affluent first-time buyers.

A City professional may have a £130,000 base salary and regularly receive another £50,000 or £70,000 in bonus. A technology executive may receive cash bonus alongside equity remuneration. A salesperson may earn a substantial proportion of total compensation through commission.

Lenders do not treat those income streams consistently.

One lender may use only a conservative proportion of bonus income. Another can use more where a strong track record exists. The evidence period can also differ, with some lenders placing more weight on the latest year and others averaging a longer period.

That means the best lender for a borrower with £150,000 of straightforward salary may not be the best lender for somebody earning the same total amount through £100,000 of salary and £50,000 of variable pay.

Higher Income Multiples Can Matter More Than a Small Rate Difference

Mortgage comparison naturally focuses on interest rates, but for a first-time buyer trying to secure the right property, the more important difference between two lenders can be how much each is prepared to lend.

A lender offering a marginally cheaper rate but limiting the loan to £700,000 is of little use if the buyer requires £800,000 and does not have another £100,000 of cash.

Another lender may charge slightly more but provide the required borrowing within a responsible affordability assessment.

That does not mean the borrower should ignore pricing. It means borrowing capacity, monthly cost and total structure should be considered together rather than selecting lenders purely from a best-buy table.

Borrowing More Is Not Automatically Better

The availability of a larger mortgage should not be confused with a recommendation to take the maximum amount available.

A household borrowing at six times income has less room for error than the same household borrowing at four times income, all else being equal.

Career breaks, childcare, changes in bonus, future school fees, interest-rate changes and other life events can alter affordability after the mortgage completes.

For a professional couple expecting one income to fall temporarily after starting a family, for example, the maximum mortgage available today may not be the mortgage that best fits their next five years.

The role of higher income multiples is to create choice. The right outcome can still be to borrow less.

A Couple Earning £220,000 Can Still Need Specialist Lender Selection

It is easy to assume that a household earning more than £200,000 will have no difficulty obtaining a mortgage.

In many parts of the UK that income creates substantial purchasing power. In London, it can still produce difficult trade-offs.

A couple purchasing their first home for £1.25m with a £250,000 deposit needs a £1m mortgage. Against £220,000 of combined income, that represents approximately 4.55 times income.

On the face of it, that is only marginally above the traditional 4.5 times threshold. Yet the difference can still determine whether the transaction works without another injection of cash.

Move the purchase price to £1.4m, reduce the deposit slightly or introduce bonus-heavy remuneration, and lender selection becomes even more consequential.

High household income does not eliminate the need for mortgage strategy. At expensive property values, it can make that strategy more important.

Future Earnings Can Matter, but Lenders Need Evidence

The strongest high-income cases are often borrowers whose financial position is improving rapidly.

A professional may have moved from £90,000 to £130,000 within two years. Another may recently have been promoted. A doctor may be moving through a clear professional progression. A solicitor may expect a significantly different remuneration structure after promotion or partnership.

Some lenders are more receptive than others to borrowers with strong future earning potential.

But anticipated income that has not yet materialised is not the same as established income. The lender still needs evidence supporting the salary and employment position on which the mortgage is based.

The opportunity is therefore not to lend against optimistic future projections. It is to avoid applying unnecessarily rigid historic assumptions to borrowers whose current and evidenced financial position has already improved.

The Deposit Has Not Stopped Mattering

The Bank of England has repeatedly identified deposit accumulation as one of the main barriers facing first-time buyers.

Higher-LTI lending addresses only one side of the affordability gap.

A borrower who can support a £900,000 mortgage still needs enough cash to satisfy the relevant loan-to-value requirement on the property and cover transaction costs.

A larger deposit can also widen the lender universe and, depending on product pricing, reduce the interest rate available.

For high earners deciding whether to buy now or continue saving, the useful analysis is therefore to model both sides: what happens if the deposit grows for another year, and what happens if a higher-LTI lender allows the desired purchase to proceed sooner?

First-Time Buyer Does Not Mean Financially Unsophisticated

The affluent first-time buyer can have investments, large pension contributions, deferred remuneration, significant annual bonuses and complex career planning while still never having owned a home.

That creates a different advice requirement from a conventional entry-level purchase.

The mortgage may need to be considered alongside investment liquidity, bonus timing, future relocation, family plans or the possibility of repaying a substantial portion of the loan after a later capital event.

For some clients, borrowing more initially can preserve useful liquidity. For others, liquidating investments or using a larger deposit to reduce debt will be more appropriate.

The fact that a lender will advance six times income does not answer that wider financial decision.

Why Testing Only Your Existing Bank Can Understate What You Can Buy

High-LTI lending is particularly fragmented because lenders are free to make different strategic decisions about how much of this business they want.

One large bank may have limited appetite above a certain multiple. Another can operate a dedicated high-income proposition. A building society may have favourable professional criteria. Another lender may use a particularly effective affordability model for a dual-income household.

A buyer asking only their current bank how much they can borrow can therefore receive an accurate answer from that bank and still obtain an incomplete view of the wider mortgage market.

For somebody deciding between a £750,000 property and a £1m property, that difference can affect the entire home search.

Finance Capacity Should Be Established Before Property Negotiation

The best time to discover that a lender will consider a higher income multiple is before the buyer offers on a property.

That allows the search budget to be based on credible financing rather than an assumed multiple, and it prevents the opposite problem of a buyer agreeing a price that requires debt they cannot ultimately secure.

For London buyers in competitive areas, having the borrowing position assessed early can also improve execution once the right property is found.

A high-income buyer with a realistic finance strategy is in a much stronger position than one who begins exploring enhanced multiples after an offer has already been accepted.

How Willow Private Finance Can Help

Willow Private Finance works with higher-earning residential borrowers whose mortgage requirements do not fit neatly into a standard salary-multiple calculation.

For first-time buyers, that can include doctors, solicitors, finance professionals, executives, entrepreneurs and professional couples purchasing higher-value homes in London and the South East.

We assess the complete lender market around the client's actual profile: base salary, bonus and variable remuneration, profession, deposit, credit commitments, intended property value and the amount of borrowing genuinely required.

Where enhanced income multiples are available, we can identify which lenders' criteria fit the borrower rather than treating 4 or 4.5 times income as a universal ceiling.

Equally, the purpose is not simply to maximise the mortgage. The aim is to establish a credible borrowing range that allows the client to search for the right property with a clear understanding of both lender appetite and the resulting monthly commitment.