Foundation changes criteria for residential range

September 2, 2026 by Brendan O'Neill

Mortgage Advisors

Foundation is making a number of changes to the criteria for its range of residential mortgage products.

The main change the lender has announced is to the loan-to-income (LTI) criteria. This will benefit both sole and joint borrowers who fall into the higher-earnings bracket. In the case of the former, it will apply to those who earn at least £50,000 a year. For the latter, the financial cut-off point will be £70,000 a year. People who fall within these ranges will now be able to borrow a maximum of 5.99x their annual earnings.

Foundation has made it clear that this revised lending criteria only applies to sole and joint borrowers who fall within those brackets. People who fall below them will still be restricted to maximum borrowing of 4.49x what they earn each year.

The maximum number of applicants there can be to qualify for the enhanced residential criteria is four. It will also be available for joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) mortgage applications.

Although this is the headline criteria change, it is not the only one the Foundation has made. The lender has also adjusted its criteria for borrowers with adverse credit and streamlined its credit tiers.

Grant Hendry works for Foundation as the director of sales. He spoke with Financial Reporter:

“Alongside the wider enhancements we’ve made to our residential proposition, these changes give brokers more options when placing cases and provide more opportunities to say yes to customers with strong affordability.”

Mortgage advisors with CeMAP training will welcome the greater range of options this provides them with.