The lender says its new calculations “consider features particular to owning new build properties, including their lower running costs when compared to the purchase of an older property”. 

It points out that a typical joint application with two dependants buying a new build home for £430,000 with salaries of £45,000 and £33,000, with a 30-year mortgage, allows them to borrow an extra £5,110 on a two-year fixed rate, or £5,671, on a five-year fix.

In recent months, Santander, Leeds Building Society, Barclays, and Nationwide among others, have also eased their affordability rules to allow tens of thousands of pounds of extra borrowing for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers. 

The moves from these lenders come after the Financial Conduct Authority said in March that lenders have been “too cautious” in granting FTB home loans under current rules. 

Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Nikhil Rathi told the Treasury Committee that under existing regulatory rules lenders have a degree of “flexibility” over the stress tests they apply to homebuyers coming to the market for the first time, which they have not exercised.