Go and see a good Mortgages Broker they will be able to work out your max LTV and your monthly payments.
Most lender will still do 3.5 x income some will do more some less it's more about affordability these days as a basic role your total monthly expenditure should be no more than 35% off your gross monthly income. looking at what you say about your income you should get around 200.000 +/- dependent on the lender and now much deposit you are looking to put down the bigger the deposit the more you can lend.

Does this just refer to leasehold houses or to flats as well...reason for asking is both my kids are in the process of buying leashold flats,directly from the developer.

depending on how many flats are in the same building, the flat owners can club together, start their own 'company' and collectively buy the lease/s.

Clinton is Clinton. I have known him for a long time, I know his mother... Simon Jordan

Pro USA & Israel

It applies to flats and houses but more recently developers have been selling detached and semi-detached houses as leasehold, with clauses which allow the ground rent to double every 10 years. The freeholds are then sold on to private companies which extract the ground rent, charge high fees if a homeowner wishes to make alterations, and refuse to sell the freehold except for a huge premium.

Homebuyers have been left with houses they cannot sell as lenders will no longer offer mortgages against them because of the ground rent clauses.
Ground rent is not the only revenue stream for the new freeholder though, there can be huge charges for building insurance if the lease stipulates it and permissions and licences too.
Like charging several £thousand for permission to build a conservatory in his own garden. Subletting permissions and permission to sell can also rake in many thousands for freeholders.

Several large housebuilders have been caught operating in this scam-Taylor Wimpey, Bellway and Persimmon. Govt is aware and might do something shortly.

If its a flat you are buying it will usually be leasehold. The longer the lease is the better for you when you come to resell.

As Hoof Hearted has already said get your solicitor to read the contract and terms very carefully, spell out to you all the associated services, charges and costs. Who is responsible for what, when, and where and who are the landlords.

If you buy the property and once in it you decide that you want to try and reduce the service charges and costs (if you think they are high and the service provided is poor) you could look to buy the freehold from the Landlord.

Buying the freehold: groups of leaseholders who satisfy certain conditions can get together and enforce the sale of the freehold by the landlord to them, again with the price being agreed between the parties or, if this is not possible, set by the Tribunal.

I have just got a mortgage for a new house and I can't recommend highly enough a mortgage advisor.

I went into my bank and also looked a bit online and on average I'm saving about £350 per month in repayments.

They will also tell you accurately what you can and can't borrow.

From my limited experience, they look at your salary and what your outgoings are and base it on that. They ask for bank statements for the last 3 months so they can assess what is a regular outgoing.

The only thing that seemed to be a myth was the 'online gambling showing on my outgoings' hinders the mortgage. I don't gamble huge amounts but the fact about £100 in the last 3 months had gone to Bet365 didn't make a difference.