In a rare moment of generosity (or perhaps competitive one-upmanship), Santander has just decided that some mortgage applicants deserve to borrow a lot more than they could yesterday. How much more? In some cases, an extra £130,000, the sort of overnight boost that makes you wonder if the coffee machine at head office is dispensing something stronger.

The big change comes courtesy of a tweak to their lending rules. If you and your other half are high earners but still light on the deposit side, you might be about to qualify for up to 24% more mortgage borrowing. That’s not a gentle adjustment, that’s a full-on shove towards the estate agent’s “premium” listings.

Take Santander’s own example:

• £80,000 deposit (or equivalent equity)
• One partner earning £75k, the other £50k
• Yesterday’s maximum: £556,500
• Today’s maximum: £687,500

That’s £131,000 extra house for doing… absolutely nothing different. Well, except for filling out the same forms again.

Why the sudden generosity?

It’s all part of a broader trend. In recent months, banks and building societies have been quietly dismantling some of their stricter affordability checks, the infamous “stress tests” that made you prove you could still afford your mortgage even if rates went up to something resembling a payday lender’s APR.

The City regulator has been hinting for a while that lenders may have been a bit too cautious, and in July the Bank of England nudged them further, saying they could offer more high loan-to-income mortgages. Santander clearly took that as a green light.

The new rules in plain English

• If you and your co-applicant earn £100,000+ combined, you can now borrow 5.5 times your income at up to 90% LTV.
  
  
• Translation: a 10% deposit (or equivalent equity) is enough to access the bigger multiple.
  
  
• The actual boost you get depends on your income and deposit, but for some it’s more than a year’s salary extra in borrowing power.

Will this help?

For buyers struggling to stretch their budget in a market where the word “affordable” has become a cruel joke, it’s definitely welcome. But as always, more borrowing power doesn’t fix the fact that house prices are still… well, house prices. And if you’re not careful, that extra £130k could just mean a bigger mortgage to juggle if rates head north again.

Still, if you’ve been staring at the same three-bedroom semi in Rightmove’s “Saved” section for months, this could be your cue to look at something with an actual driveway.