It's the question underneath every property search, and it deserves a calm, honest answer rather than a sales pitch. Whether you can afford to buy comes down to three numbers: your income, your deposit, and the monthly cost you can comfortably live with. Get those three lined up against the price of the home you want, and affordability stops being a worry and becomes a plan. This page walks through each number in turn, shows you roughly where you stand, and points you to the free calculators to run your own figures — no email, no sign-up.
At a glance
Affordability is decided by three things working together: what your income lets you borrow (about 4.5× your salary), the deposit you can put down (5% minimum, 10% for better rates), and a monthly payment you can sustain with room to spare. If all three reach the home you want, you can afford it. If one falls short, that's the number to focus on — and there's usually a lever to pull.
Contents
The three numbers that decide it
Most affordability anxiety comes from treating "can I buy?" as one enormous, unknowable question. It isn't. It's three smaller questions, each with a concrete answer you can work out today:
Your income
Sets the ceiling on what a lender will let you borrow — roughly 4.5 times your gross salary, before a stress test trims it.
Your deposit
A minimum of 5% of the price, added on top of your borrowing to reach the purchase price — and it sets your interest rate.
Your monthly cost
The mortgage payment plus council tax, bills and upkeep — the number you actually live with every month.
The key insight most first-time buyers miss: these three numbers interact. A bigger deposit lowers your monthly cost and rate. A higher income raises your borrowing ceiling. Clearing a debt can lift your borrowing more than months of extra saving. So if the home you want feels just out of reach, you rarely have to fix everything — you fix the one number that's holding you back. The rest of this page takes them one at a time.
Is buying realistic on my income?
Lenders cap your mortgage at a multiple of gross income — mostly 4 to 4.5 times in 2026, with a minority reaching 5–5.5× for higher earners or specific first-time-buyer products. Add your deposit on top and you have the maximum property price. Here's roughly what different incomes reach, assuming a 4.5× multiple, a 10% deposit and no significant existing debt:
| Gross income | Borrow (4.5×) | + 10% deposit = | Home price |
|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £112,500 | £12,500 | ~£125,000 |
| £32,000 (joint) | £144,000 | £16,000 | ~£160,000 |
| £40,000 | £180,000 | £20,000 | ~£200,000 |
| £48,000 (joint) | £216,000 | £24,000 | ~£240,000 |
| £60,000 (joint) | £270,000 | £30,000 | ~£300,000 |
To put that in context, the average first-time-buyer home in England was around £243,000 in early 2026, so a couple with a combined income near £48,000 and a 10% deposit is in realistic territory for a typical first home — and much more comfortably in lower-priced regions like the North East, North West and parts of the Midlands. A single buyer on a modest income has a harder route, but not a closed one: joint applications, Shared Ownership and family-supported borrowing all change the maths. Work out your own ceiling in seconds with the affordability calculator.
What deposit do I actually need?
The deposit is the number that scares people most, and often the one they overestimate. You do not need 20%. The realistic minimum in 2026 is 5% of the price — a 95% loan-to-value mortgage — kept widely available by the Freedom to Buy (mortgage guarantee) scheme, made permanent in July 2025. Here's what each deposit level looks like on a typical £243,000 first home:
| Deposit | On a £243,000 home | LTV | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | £12,150 | 95% | The realistic minimum; highest rates |
| 10% | £24,300 | 90% | Crosses into a better rate tier |
| 15% | £36,450 | 85% | Noticeably cheaper monthly |
| 20% | £48,600 | 80% | Among the best mainstream rates |
The single most valuable step for most buyers is getting from a 5% to a 10% deposit. That one jump crosses an LTV threshold into a meaningfully better rate tier, and on a typical purchase it can save more each month than the extra deposit "cost" you to save. You don't need to reach 20% — you need to reach the next threshold. Our dedicated guide to saving for a house deposit covers exactly how to build it, including the Lifetime ISA's 25% government bonus, and the £20,000 deposit guide shows what a saved sum actually buys.
How much could I borrow?
Your income sets the headline multiple, but the affordability stress test is what produces your real figure. Lenders subtract your genuine monthly commitments — credit cards, car finance, loans, childcare — and check you could still cope if rates rose. This routinely lands below the simple 4.5× figure, which is why two people on the same salary can be offered very different amounts.
The practical takeaway: debt quietly shrinks your budget. As a rough guide, around £500 a month of existing commitments can cut your maximum borrowing by £100,000 or more. That's why clearing a car loan or credit-card balance before you apply often does more for your budget than another few months of saving. The full detail, with salary tables and the stress test explained, is in how much can I borrow?
How long might saving take?
Once you know the deposit you're aiming for, the next honest question is how long it takes to get there. That depends on your target and what you can put aside each month. Here's the rough timeline to a 10% deposit on a £243,000 home (about £24,300), before any interest or Lifetime ISA bonus:
| Saved per month | To reach ~£24,300 |
|---|---|
| £250 | ~8 years |
| £400 | ~5 years |
| £600 | ~3.5 years |
| £800 | ~2.5 years |
Those numbers shorten meaningfully once you add a Lifetime ISA (a 25% government bonus on up to £4,000 a year) and any interest on your savings — a saver putting away £400 a month into a LISA reaches the target noticeably faster than the table suggests. Rather than guess, put your own target and monthly figure into the deposit savings calculator to see a realistic date.
The real monthly cost of owning
Affordability isn't only about getting the mortgage approved — it's about living comfortably once you have it. The mortgage payment is the biggest line, but it isn't the only one. A realistic monthly picture for a first home includes:
- The mortgage payment itself — driven by the loan size, your rate (set by your LTV) and the term. Model it with the monthly payment calculator.
- Council tax — hundreds of pounds a month in many areas, and easy to forget when you're renting a room.
- Energy, water and broadband — a whole home costs more to run than a flatshare; the EPC rating hints at how much.
- Buildings insurance — a condition of your mortgage, required from exchange.
- Maintenance and a repair buffer — the boiler, the roof, the surprises. Owners carry these; renters call the landlord.
- Service charge and ground rent — on flats and many new-builds, a real monthly cost worth checking before you fall in love with a place.
A sensible guide is to keep your total housing cost below roughly 35% of your take-home pay, leaving room to save and absorb surprises. A mortgage that technically passes the lender's test but leaves nothing spare each month isn't really affordable — the goal is a payment you barely think about, not one you brace for. Don't forget the one-off costs at purchase either: even with first-time-buyer stamp duty relief, budget for conveyancing, searches, a survey and removals, all set out in the full cost of buying a house.
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Turning it into your own plan
You don't need certainty to start — you need direction. Here's the honest sequence that turns "can I afford it?" into a plan you can actually follow:
- Find your borrowing ceiling. Run your income and debts through the affordability calculator to see the loan you're working with.
- Set a deposit target that hits the next LTV threshold — usually 10% — rather than an arbitrary round number.
- Put a date on it with the deposit savings calculator, and open a Lifetime ISA if you're eligible.
- Clear expensive debt where you can — it often lifts your budget faster than saving does.
- Pressure-test the monthly cost against your take-home pay, including bills and a repair buffer, not just the mortgage.
- Talk to a whole-of-market, FCA-regulated broker before deciding — they see lenders and schemes a calculator can't.
Affordability is rarely a flat yes or no. It's a question of which number to work on, and by how much — and almost everyone who owns a home started exactly where you are now, unsure whether it was possible. Work the three numbers, and you'll know where you stand and what to do next. When you're ready to see what a real budget buys, our Property Intelligence guides break down actual developments by price, from entry-level schemes upward.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if I can afford to buy a house?
Three numbers decide it: your income (which sets how much a lender will let you borrow, usually around 4.5 times your gross salary), your deposit (a minimum of 5% of the price, though 10% unlocks better rates), and the monthly cost you can comfortably live with once the mortgage, bills, council tax and running costs are added up. If the home you want sits inside all three — a price your borrowing plus deposit can reach, and a monthly payment you can sustain with a buffer left over — it is affordable. If any one of the three doesn't stretch, that's the number to work on.
What salary do I need to buy a house in the UK in 2026?
It depends entirely on the price of the home and your deposit, because lenders cap borrowing at roughly 4.5 times income. As a rough guide, buying a typical first-time-buyer home around £243,000 with a 10% deposit means borrowing about £219,000, which needs an income in the region of £48,000 — achievable for many couples on a combined salary, harder for a single buyer. In cheaper regions the figure is far lower: a £160,000 home needs to borrow around £144,000, within reach of a combined income near £32,000.
How much deposit do I need to buy a house?
The realistic minimum is 5% of the purchase price, which gives a 95% loan-to-value mortgage — widely available in 2026 and supported by the Freedom to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme. On a £243,000 home that's about £12,150. Stretching to a 10% deposit (£24,300) crosses into a better rate tier and lowers your monthly payment, so where you can, aiming for 10% is usually worth the extra wait.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy right now?
It varies by area and depends on how long you'll stay. Buying carries costs renting doesn't — the deposit, buying fees, maintenance and the risk of rates rising at renewal — but it builds equity and fixes your housing cost, while rent is money you don't get back and can rise each year. Over a short stay (a couple of years) the buying costs often outweigh the benefit; over a longer horizon, owning usually wins in most of the country. The honest answer needs your local rent, your target purchase price and how long you plan to stay.
How much should my mortgage payment be compared to my income?
A common rule of thumb is to keep housing costs — mortgage, and ideally council tax and bills too — below about 35% of your take-home pay, so there's room for saving, emergencies and life. Lenders apply their own affordability and stress tests that often land in a similar place, but the rule that matters most is your own: a payment that leaves you comfortable and able to save, not one that technically passes but leaves you stretched every month.
Can I buy a house on a low income?
Often yes, particularly with help. Buying jointly combines two incomes; schemes like Shared Ownership let you buy a share of a home and pay rent on the rest, lowering the deposit and income needed; and a Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor arrangement lets a family member's income boost what you can borrow without them owning the property. Clearing existing debt before you apply also lifts your borrowing more than many people expect. A whole-of-market broker can point you to the lenders and schemes that fit a modest income.
Last reviewed: July 2026
Next review due: October 2026