Lesson 5 of 6
Affordability rules compared: duties, ratio limits and how markets differ
Markets write affordability into their rules in two broad ways: a duty on the lender to assess whether the borrower can repay, and numerical limits on ratios such as repayments or loans relative to income. The same applicant can pass under one design and fail under another, so the details matter as much as the headline number.
Published 17 October 2026 · Listen to this lesson
In this lesson
- Two designs: a duty to assess, or a number
- Duties: what the lender must do
- Ratio limits: the design choices
- Where ratio limits are used
- A worked example: one applicant, four rules
- Reading the rules in a market