Exactly this - if banks didn't think people could pay off mortgages, at least some chunk of the people, they wouldn't be offering them. I agree that buying a h

Exactly this - if banks didn't think people could pay off mortgages, at least some chunk of the people, they wouldn't be offering them. I agree that buying a house in central London (for example) is probably outside the reach of mere mortals, but I think that problem occurs several steps before the "paying off the mortgage" bit applies! Many very interesting replies to my initial comment; it certainly is useful to see things from a different perspective.