UK first-time buyers: would you borrow up to six times your earnings for a mortgage?

For sale and to let boards on a street in York. Photograph: John Giles/PA

In what is a first for a major high street lender, Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society, is allowing first-time buyers to borrow up to six times their income.

From Tuesday, it would give new buyers the option of borrowing up to six times their income when taking out a five- or 10-year fixed rate for up to 95% of the property’s value.