Lenders have to assess whether or not you can afford a mortgage, and in recent years this has meant ‘stress-testing’. That’s not just how you react to the spectre of 3 or 4 prime ministers in the space of less than a year or a commute on the M25; it’s whether you’d be able to make your monthly repayments if interest rates went up still further. And there’s the problem for first-time buyers (and we’re probably talking under-40s, not under-30s now), your income has to be up to what might still happen, not just what is happening. Couple that with the need for a 15% deposit if you want an affordable rate, and you can see the extent to which they’re really up against it. With property prices as they are that is; so, something’s got to give, I’d say.
“Advice firm Almond Financial moves to four-day working week”
The Four Day Week was much discussed and trailed post-COVID, when remote-working looked likely to end strap-hanging commutes for good and laptops on the kitchen table were to become the ’new norm’.