HarryM - 11:02 am on Dec 5, 2007 (gmt 0)

3.5 times income as it always used to be

Exhorbitant! To buy a house in the 1960's involved a personal visit to the bank manager or building society, and the max you could get was 2.25 times the husbands's income. Some would push that up to 2.5 times if the wife was also working. And if you weren't married, forget about it.

Also in those days getting a personal loan involved an interview with the bank manager, and it was like getting blood out of a stone. There was typically a patronizing little lecture about the dangers of becoming over-extended.

Personally I'm glad those days are gone, but I agree that lending has got really out of hand.