Typically, you can borrow between 4 to 4.5 times your salary for a mortgage as a first time buyer. If you're buying with someone else, like a partner, this will be based on your combined salary. However, how much you are offered depends on your affordability, which is impacted by things like your credit score, existing loans and spending. There are schemes that allow first-time buyers to borrow more, for example a 5.5x Income Mortgage lets you borrow up to 5.5x your salary for a mortgage. While a Professional Mortgage lets you borrow up to 5.5 or even 6.5 times your salary. A specialist mortgage broker like Tembo can help you discover all the schemes which could allow you to boost your mortgage borrowing, or simply find the best mortgage deals for you from across the market.

Typically, first time buyers would be expected to put at least 5% of the full property price down as a deposit. Although some mortgage products may require you to put down more than this, sometimes as much as 15% or 20% of the cost of the home.

As a specialist mortgage broker, we work with over 100 lenders and schemes, giving us access to thousands of mortgage products. This means we can find all the schemes you're eligible for and how much they could boost your budget by in an instant - saving you time, effort and money. Your dedicated mortgage broker will then walk you every step of your homebuying journey, right up to getting the keys to your new home.

On average, Tembo customers increase their buying budget by £82,000. This comes from our access to over 100 lenders, as well as specialist schemes such as guarantor mortgages, shared ownership and key worker mortgages. Your actual figure depends on your income, deposit and circumstances.

A bank can only offer you a deal from its own mortgage products. Tembo searches 100+ lenders and 20,000+ deals, and also checks specialist schemes — like guarantor mortgages, shared ownership and NHS mortgages - to find you the best options for you from across the whole market. It's how we're able to boost our customers' affordability by £82,000 on average!