Nationwide reduces minimum income requirement for six times salary Helping Hand mortgage
- Sole applicants now need a minimum income of £35,000 to benefit from Nationwide's Helping Hand mortgage; the minimum income requirement for joint applications remains at £55,000.
Nationwide has boosted support for single applicant first-time buyers by lowering the minimum income requirement on its Helping Hand back down to £35,000. For joint applicants, the minimum combined income will remain the same at £55,000.
Helping Hand has played a significant role in helping first-time buyers get onto the housing ladder. It enables borrowing of up to six times income when taking a five or ten-year fixed rate up to 95% Loan-to-Value (LTV). This gives potential homeowners a 33 per cent uplift versus Nationwide’s standard lending at 4.5 times income.
How is Nationwide offering six time salary mortgages?
Current regulations limit the amount of high loan-to-income (LTI) lending banks and building societies can do to no more than 15 per cent of their total qualifying loans. Like others, Nationwide has to manage its lending relative to that limit.
This has become even more important since Nationwide extended borrowing to up to six times income through Helping Hand. This has resulted in Nationwide increasing minimum income requirements for Helping Hand in recent months in order to stay within the limit.
The latest reduction will enable Nationwide to help even more first-time buyers despite the requirements remaining above last year's thresholds of £30,000 (for sole applicants) and £50,000 (for joint applicants). However, this is necessary to ensure Nationwide’s lending complies with regulations amid high demand.
Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "There are still not that many lenders offering six-times-salary mortgages, especially to first-time buyers seeking larger loan sizes. Often, borrowers do not need to raise the full six-times salary; they need 5.25 or 5.5 times salary, which is enough to secure the required mortgage amount."
Call Trinity Financial on 020 7016 0790 to secure a first time buyer mortgage, book a consultation, or complete our mortgage questionnaire.
The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change.
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