Your affordability – or how much money you can afford to pay to your lender each month – will depend on many things. Your lender will have a list of criteria they use to work out if your loan amount is affordable for you. But it is important to make sure you not only meet the lender’s affordability criteria, but you are comfortable your payments will be manageable within your own personal budget.
If you are buying a Shared Ownership property for instance, affordability can be different depending on which property you choose, due to the fact rent and service charges can vary. This means a new affordability check will be required for each different property you are interested in. For a standard purchase, you should be given an indication of the maximum you would be allowed to borrow.
It’s important to keep in mind that the lender can repossess your property if you don’t keep up your repayments.
We know affordability sounds scary but it’s there to protect you from problems in the future!