First-time buyers in England or Northern Ireland
Every mainstream calculator answers what a lender will lend. Below is the other question, worked through for a first-time buyer in England or Northern Ireland: which of the three limits runs out first, what is still theirs each month once the payment goes out, and what changes when the fixed rate ends and they take a new one.
Two incomes, renting, no property to sell and no mortgage to carry across.
- Household income
- £76,000
- Take-home, combined
- £4,750 a month
- Living costs
- £2,200 a month
- Saving they intend to keep
- £400 a month
- Savings toward the deposit
- £45,000
- Maximum loan to value
- 90%
£380,000
£1,741 a month over 35 years at 5.07%
£2,185
46% of take-home, up from 37%
The limit they meet is their deposit — not the other two. At that price £259 a month is still theirs, with the £400 saving going out on top of it.
Cutting the saving would not raise this figure: their deposit limits the loan before the monthly payment does, so money freed up each month buys no more house — which means the saving is theirs to keep. That is the case a calculator built around a lender's maximum cannot show you, because it never asks what the saving was for.
Note what those two figures mean together: on a new deal at that rate the repayment rises by £444 a month while only £259 is spare, leaving them £185 a month short unless something else changes. The headline price is not wrong. It is just not the whole question.
Change these figures to yoursOpens the tool with this example loaded. The arithmetic runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Stamp Duty Land Tax in England or Northern Ireland
SDLT · verified 13 August 2026
Stamp Duty Land Tax is the original of the three. Scotland replaced it in 2015 and Wales in 2018, so the rates below apply in England and Northern Ireland only.
On the £380,000 above, the tax is £4,000 — and it comes out of the same cash as the deposit rather than being borrowed, which is why it lowers the price this household can reach rather than simply being a bill at the end.
- up to £300,0000%
- up to £500,0005%
- above that5%
Relief stops dead at £500,000. It does not taper. One pound over the cap, the relief is lost on the whole price, which costs £5,000 more in tax for a pound more of house. If you are buying near that number, it is the one thing on this page worth checking by hand.
The same household, priced elsewhere
Identical income, identical savings, identical monthly costs — only the region changes. The gap is the tax regime, and for a first-time buyer it is worth this much:
Rates from the Bank of England quoted household interest rates, two-year fixed, as at 31 July 2026. Purchase tax verified 13 August 2026.
Other situations in England or Northern Ireland
This describes what happens to one illustrative set of figures. It is not advice, not a personal recommendation and not a mortgage illustration. A lender will run its own affordability assessment and may lend more or less than the figure above.
Work it out with your own figures