Broker says buying a home is no longer simply a question of whether the client can afford the mortgage
First-time buyers are contending with a market in which house prices remain far ahead of pay, while lenders’ affordability tests limit borrowing even for applicants who can meet repayments.
For Jamie Alexander (pictured top), mortgage director at Alexander Southwell Mortgages, the basic challenge is no longer simply the headline mortgage payment, but whether buyers can build a viable plan to ownership amid higher living costs and tighter lending standards.
“House prices have outpaced wage growth for years,” he pointed out. “In many parts of the country, the average first-time buyer is looking at a property that costs eight or nine times their annual income. “Even in markets that have softened slightly, affordability remains a genuine barrier rather than a perception issue.”
Alexander argued that advisers need to shift the discussion from eligibility to practical options. “The conversation we need to be having with clients isn’t always ‘can you afford a mortgage?’, it’s ‘what does your path to ownership actually look like?’” he said. “That might mean shared ownership, as it did for me. It might mean a different location, a smaller first step, or a longer timeline.”
Deposit-building remains a big challenge, particularly for those trying to save while renting. Alexander noted that essential costs now compete directly with savings, stretching timelines and raising the required sums in many areas.
“When I was saving for my deposit, life was simpler in one important respect: my rent, food and energy bills were not eating through my salary at the rate many people experience today,” he related. “For a lot of first-time buyers in 2024 and 2025, the very basics of living are competing directly with their savings goals.”
Alexander also pointed to the complexity of sources of deposit and support that can be overlooked. “Lifetime ISAs, Help to Buy ISA savings that have already accumulated, employer benefits, gifted deposits, there are more levers available than many first-time buyers realise,” he said. “Our job as brokers is to help them find and pull those levers.”
According to Alexander, the after-effects of rapid mortgage rate increases shape buyer behaviour, with buyers delaying decisions in expectation of a return to ultra-low pricing.
“The psychological hangover from rapid rate rises is still very present,” he said. “Many first-time buyers are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for a return to levels that may simply not materialise, at least not in the near term.
“Part of our role as advisers is helping clients understand that waiting indefinitely has its own costs, and that a good mortgage taken at today’s rates can be reviewed and remortgaged as conditions change.”
Alongside pricing, underwriting rules continue to determine outcomes. “The regulatory environment post-2008 was designed to protect borrowers, and for good reason,” Alexander said. “But stress testing at rates significantly above the product rate, combined with tighter income multiples, means that clients who are perfectly capable of managing a mortgage can find themselves declined or offered far less than they expected.”
In that environment, he added, broker knowledge of lender policy detail can be decisive, particularly for borrowers with variable income or self-employed profiles.
“Knowing which lenders take a more flexible view of complex income, understanding how different lenders treat overtime, bonuses or self-employed earnings, and having the relationships to have those nuanced conversations, that is what turns a declined application into a successful one,” he said.
“The dream of homeownership is not dead. It has simply become more complex to navigate, and that is precisely why the role of a knowledgeable, empathetic adviser has never mattered more.”
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