Barclays has eased affordability assessments for residential and buy-to-let (BTL) lending, enabling borrowers to access larger loans.
Residential borrowers on an 85% loan-to-value (LTV) product or lower will be subject to a reduced minimum stress rate. Meanwhile, income multiples for joint applicants each earning between £35,000 and £75,000 per year have been increased.
For BTL borrowers, Barclays has introduced a dynamic stress rate. This will be calculated at a fixed margin above the rate of the chosen product. The bank said this would more closely reflect a borrower’s circumstances, while maintaining responsible lending.
Through the changes, BTL borrowers could access up to £20,000 more. This is based on a single BTL applicant with an income of £40,000 taking a mortgage for a property valued at £250,000 with an expected annual rent of £12,150.
Barclays has updated its affordability calculator to reflect the changes.
Earlier this year, the bank reported £34.3bn in gross mortgage lending for 2025.
The growth of ‘just-off-high-street’ lending
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