Owen McGee

Now, the interesting thing is, David, when it was three and a half times, it was kind of accepted within the market that if you got an exception, you got four types.

And then when it moved from three and a half to four for first time buyers, I actually spoke to the central bank at the time, a couple of years ago, and I spoke to the central bank and I said, does this mean that the exceptions are going to move from four to 4.5?

And I was surprised because it certainly passed me by at the time.

The central bank told me, oh no, like we don't determine that four, the 4.5.

An exception is an exception.

So theoretically,

they could do whatever they wanted.

Technically, they could.

And in fact, I don't know if it's still the case in the UK, but two months ago, there was an article in the FT that basically said banks are, high street banks are doing six times at the moment.

Now, David, you and I are old enough to remember the bad old days or the good old days where we were doing 10 and 12 times at the time, and it wasn't good for us.

And that's why the rules are there to say that these are the rules you have to stick to.

And people are generally accepting.

I know house prices have shot up and it doesn't feel like there's any control, but it is believed that if those rules weren't in place for 85% of cases, the house prices would have gone up even further than they already have in the last few years.

Yeah, absolutely.

So they have discretion over 15%.

And it's not just on the multiplication of income.

It can be also technically they could give you 100% mortgage.

Technically, they could break the rules on what's called the loan-to-value ratio as well.

So what does that mean?

The amount outstanding on your mortgage...