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Featured articleBuying a house to live in is the number one Kiwi strategy for getting ahead. Not only do you get a place to call your own, you have a stake in the New Zealand property market. Many people firmly believe that property values double every 10 years and data reveals it’s a reality for much
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Featured articleWhen you’re thinking about buying your first home or moving up to your next home, it helps to get your head around the acronyms and jargon that lie ahead. If someone’s using these abbreviations without first explaining what they mean, be sure to ask. There are no silly questions when it comes to making good
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The journey from scanning the real estate pages to signing up for a mortgage has many steps. We’ll walk you through the process, so there are no surprises. The more you know before you get in touch with a lender, the better. Step 1: Have a casual chat with your lender or broker Getting your
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Buying your first home has become more and more challenging, particularly for Kiwis who may not have the option of significant financial support from family. To help address this, the New Zealand government provides several schemes designed to help people into home ownership for the first time. This guide provides a helpful overview of the
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In Budget 2022, the government eased some of the criteria for the First Home Grant, First Home Loan and Kāinga Whenua schemes administered by Kāinga Ora. The changes were made to help more first home buyers (existing or new-build) by better reflecting market prices for homes in some areas, as well as the needs of
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When a home loan lender is checking you out as a potential borrower, they’ll take a long, hard look at your credit score, which is a number between 0 and 1000. Lenders refer to your credit score because they need to ensure the loan they provide will be repaid. Having a high number could make
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Going shopping for a home – either your first or your next – is always an exciting time. The secret to making it a positive experience is having a realistic picture of how much you can afford to pay, so that you can view properties that fall within your budget. To get the clearest view
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Whether you’re a first home buyer, looking for your next place or building a home, one of the most important rules is to know what you can realistically afford. And what you can afford isn’t the same as what you could pay if you really squeeze every last drop out of your income. It means
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For some years now, New Zealand’s main banks and other mortgage lenders have been known to offer a cashback reward to eligible customers when they draw down (start) a new mortgage. It’s typically a lump sum cash payment of $1,000 to $3,000 – or even significantly more, depending on how much you’re borrowing. In this
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One way to reduce some of the stress of finding and owning your first home, or moving up to your next home, is to plan ahead for the extra costs involved. That way there’ll be less chance of nasty surprises that blow your budget and ruin the fun. Everyone has their eye on mortgage repayments,
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Owning your own home, or intending to, has been a New Zealand tradition for generations. But that doesn’t mean it’s still the best option for you today. People used to smoke on aircraft, we were once encouraged to save a tree by using plastic instead of paper and bars had to close at 6pm. Things
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One of the simplest ways to see what your regular mortgage repayments would be is to use our mortgage repayments calculator. You can also use it to check the effect of increasing or decreasing your regular repayments, or making a lump sum repayment at some point during the term of your mortgage. And if you’re
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When it comes to getting a new home loan or refinancing a property, many high-income households face a choice of working with a personal banker through private banking or engaging a mortgage broker. If you have a personal banker (also known as a private banker), your initial instinct may be to contact them regarding your
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Getting a mortgage is a big deal. Where do you go to find the best lender for your circumstances? What criteria will you have to meet? When and how do you apply? There are so many questions to navigate. Fortunately, mortgage brokers have many of the answers. A mortgage broker is an expert when it
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You’ve probably heard there’s usually no charge to use a mortgage broker (mortgage adviser). That’s because they’re paid a commission by the lender you end up deciding to go with. So, if the lender’s paying them and you’re getting their services for free, are they going to put your interests first? The short answer is
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When it comes to choosing a mortgage broker or mortgage adviser, there are quite a few things to check out and carefully consider. This article will help you to ask the right questions, so that you can choose a broker that suits you. For example, you’ll need to know whether a broker will charge you
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A property is one of the most expensive things you’ll ever buy. The amount you borrow and the interest you’ll pay over decades can be huge. So, whether you’re looking for a new mortgage or reviewing the one you have, it’s worth investing some time into getting the best arrangement for your current circumstances and
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The golden rule for the minimum deposit required to buy a first house is 20%. But there are opportunities to get a home loan with a deposit as low as 10% or even 5%, in special circumstances. In this guide, we look at major bank lenders’ approaches to lending money for first home buyers. We
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Low equity margin (LEM), aka low equity premium (LEP), is the price you pay for having a smaller-than-optimum deposit for the property you want to buy. It’s either an extra bit of interest that’s added to the going rates or a one-off fee that’s added to your loan. As house prices creep up, it’s getting
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With the current perfect storm of rising cost of living and higher interest rates, it might be almost impossible to buy a first home with a deposit that’s less than 10% – unless you qualify for low income government assistance. Even with help from the government, the challenge can be affording the home loan repayments,
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Buying a house off the plans that hasn’t been built yet can seem pretty scary. You’re usually signing up to a massive new-build loan for something with thousands of components that doesn’t even exist yet. How do you know what the finished home will be worth and whether you’ll end up getting what you expected? The good news
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If you’ve been looking for a home for a while, you’ve probably put some thought into the option of building a new house or buying a new-build property. Committing a whole heap of money to something that doesn’t exist yet is a big step, but the rewards can be big too. There are many potential
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Are you considering a land purchase to build on straight away or to hold for future plans? Or maybe you want to build an investment property from the ground up? This guide will help you get started on the road to your ideal section, lifestyle block, or land and house package. Where is the best
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Choosing whether to build from scratch or buy an existing home is a question that many Kiwis struggle with. The decision outcome is highly individual. It depends on where in New Zealand you live, how much you want to spend and your ability to be approved for a home loan of the required size. Personal
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Understanding how lenders calculate your mortgage interest is the first step to finding ways to pay less interest over the life of your loan. To help you along, here’s a summary of where the interest goes, what affects interest rates, how your regular interest payment is calculated and ways to reduce the interest you pay.
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With so many mortgage lenders, interest rates and terms to choose from, finding the best solution for your circumstances can be hard work. Whether you’re about to buy a home or are exploring refinancing options for a property you already own, you’ll find our rates page incredibly useful. It shows the lowest interest rates available
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If your mortgage application has been declined, it may help to know you’re not alone. Less than half of all applications are approved these days. While the new lending rules have certainly made things more challenging, declined applications have always been more common than you might think. At this point you’ve put in an application
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With house prices accelerating in recent years and deposits outpacing first home owners’ best efforts to save, parents are now helping their children into a first home more than ever before. While parents and their children might prefer to remain independent, for many it’s the only way to secure home ownership. So here’s an overview
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Whether you’re a sole trader, a freelancer, in a partnership with someone or a director of a limited company, being your own boss comes with a lot of satisfaction. However, when you want to get a mortgage – for your home or an investment property – mainstream bank lenders will ask you to jump a
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If you’ve had to deal with financial hardship or simply forgot to pay some bills in the last five years or so, you may find it difficult to get a mortgage from a bank. In this guide we look at how you can end up with a bad credit record, what you can do about
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Whether you’re buying your first home, next home or an investment property, you might need to get a registered valuation to finalise your home loan. What happens if that valuation isn’t high enough? If you’ve purchased a property at auction and there’s a shortfall between the amount you need to borrow and the amount supported
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Once you have a mortgage, it’s a good idea to keep a regular eye on how it’s performing for you. You should revisit things every six months or so, just to ensure you’ve still got the best arrangements in place. However, with everything set up on auto-payments and your budget fine-tuned for home ownership, it’s
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When you have a mortgage ticking away with regular repayments happening automatically, it can be easy to simply let things continue as they are. But finding little ways to repay your mortgage faster will have an ever-accelerating effect. Every little extra you pay off will immediately reduce the interest you have to pay each time.
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When you’re borrowing to buy a home or an investment property there are several different types of mortgages to choose from. Once you understand how they work, and the pros and cons of each, it’s easier to pick the types that might suit you best. Most people choose a combination of two or more. It can
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Whether you’re applying for your first mortgage, restructuring an existing loan or refinancing to a new lender, it helps to understand why people choose different fix-float strategies. This guide is designed to get you thinking before talking with a mortgage adviser and choosing the best arrangement for your circumstances. Basically, you can choose a fixed
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The question ‘how long should I fix my mortgage for’ has much in common with questions like ‘what are interest rates going to do?’, ‘how much can I save in a year’ and ‘what should I name my first born’? The best answer depends on crystal ball gazing, personal circumstances and market analysis. While we
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Also known as a ‘variable mortgage’ or ‘floating home loan’, a floating rate mortgage has an interest rate that can increase or decrease at any time. That means your regular repayments can also change. The other downside is that floating interest rates are usually higher than fixed rates. The main advantage of a floating mortgage
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A fixed rate mortgage has an interest rate that doesn’t change over an agreed period of time – six months, or one, two, three, four or five years. Fixed rates are typically lower than a floating rate. Also known as a ‘fixed mortgage’ or ‘fixed home loan’, this type of mortgage is popular with New
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