According to a recent report from the housing charity Shelter, banks are still prepared to offer a mortgage of up to 5.5 times your annual salary if your credit history and your job are both good enough.

Having said that anyone taking such a weighty mortgage would have great difficulty getting their family budget to balance and places them in serious danger of becoming financially overwhelmed.

Back in more conservative banking days, a big mortgage was judged at around 3.5 times annual salary which left the homeowner to comfortably afford the other family bills.

There are concerns that bank staff are being increasingly pressurised to drive sales and both Barclays and Santander were prepared to offer a 5.5 multiple. The Royal bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest both offered 4.75 multiples and Direct Line, a subsidiary of RBS offered 4.8. (Info from Shelter)