Based on a real case completed in 2026. Names, figures, dates and some details have been changed so the clients cannot be identified, but the way the numbers behave is accurate. Lender criteria change often, so this shows how the assessment worked at the time, not what any lender will offer now.

Who

Two NHS doctors, both employed, in their forties, buying together

The house

Purchase price £830,000. Deposit £124,500, which is 15%. Mortgage £705,500 on capital repayment

The income

NHS basic salary, allowances on top, and locum work outside their main roles, for each of them

The outcome

Placed on a high street lender's premier range. Mortgage offer two weeks after they first got in touch

Where they started

They came to me first. No other broker, no declined application, no bank that had already said no. They had found the house, they had a 15% deposit, and they wanted to know how much they could borrow and what it would cost each month. If that is where you are, my mortgages for doctors page covers the ground this case walks through.

What their pay looked like

Both are employed by the NHS, and neither has a simple payslip. Each had a basic salary, allowances on top, and locum work outside their main role. Lenders treat those three parts differently, and some only count the basic salary with confidence. I set out all three for each of them, with the evidence behind each figure, so the lender could see the whole of what they earn rather than the smallest part of it.

The lender took the salary and allowances, and averaged the locum income rather than ignoring it or taking only the latest month. That is the usual way a lender handles pay that moves around, and it is why the locum evidence needed to cover a run of months, not one payslip.

Why a premier range

At this loan size, a number of high street lenders have separate ranges for higher earners. Those ranges look at income and the size of the loan differently from the standard ones. For this couple, one of them fitted: repayment, a 15% deposit, and income the lender was comfortable with. I cover how these ranges work on my high value mortgages page.

Two weeks

Nothing about the case was awkward, which is worth saying because a large mortgage is often assumed to be a slow one. With the income laid out properly at the start, the application went through without any back and forth, and the mortgage offer came through two weeks after they first got in touch.

"It was great to have a mortgage broker that was so quick to respond." The clients, after the offer arrived.

What this shows

A larger loan for two employed applicants is not a difficult case if the income is presented in full and the right range is chosen at the start. The work is in the preparation, not in the application.

If you are looking at a mortgage of this size, the £700k to £800k monthly payments post shows what the repayments look like at example rates over different terms.

This is one case, not a rule. Every lender assesses each application on its own facts, and what worked here may not suit your situation. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.