Our Finance Blog

As Kiwis we think of daffodils and lambs as the iconic signs of Spring. But why should we think of these two things as Kiwi icons when neither daffodils or lambs are native to New Zealand….

It’s that time of the year … Spring. In New Zealand we believe that Spring means more hours of sunlight, lambs bouncing in the paddocks and daffodils too. What it also means is getting out the…

You may have recently tried for your mortgage approval and been told that it doesn’t quite work. Of course that’s not the news that you wanted, but maybe it’s time to try again. Why It’s Now…

We now have some KiwiBuild homes available in Hobsonville Point. While Hobsonville Point was the birthplace of the affordable home concept with AXIS Homes, this week we have seen the first of the KiwiBuild homes be…

The media are saying that the cooling property market is making it easier for first home buyers but it is still not easy. There are some major hurdles and as mortgage brokers we wanted to look…

Yes, you can and should review your home loan now. What do we mean… don’t wait until your fixed term ends. Most people will have their home loan fixed and will wait for the fixed term…

It’s not often that New Zealand banks get independently rated for customer satisfaction. Recently there has been a lot of publicity about the conduct and culture with the banks so it was good to see the…

Today we felt compelled to post about sensible debt consolidation loans. Why? Because today we were putting together a debt consolidation loan application and saw one of the highest interest rate charges that we have seen…

Today we were contacted by Chris who has a Westpac mortgage with a loan balance of $979,815 The interest rate they were paying today was 4.80% and it is fixed until 24/10/2019 (6-months remaining) but Chris wanted…

Home loan interest rates in New Zealand are at historically low levels and these rates and fixing your mortgage seems like an attractive option. But a huge number of Kiwis are looking at fixing their loans…

Kiwi’s typically have a “can do” attitude and tend to think they do not need advice so don’t  ask for help. Interestingly most people will ask for advise at times, or give advice and not even…

Today the Reserve Bank announced no change to the official cash rate (OCR) leaving it on hold at 1.75% but the comments and then reaction was more telling… Has The NZ Economy Stalled? Since the last…

Mortgage brokers will often get approached by people that struggle with banks and so they need to be thinking outside of the box. If a mortgage broker thought like a banker and only provided the options…

So you want to pay your mortgage off faster – don’t we all… For most Kiwis the mortgage will be the largest financial commitment that they will ever have. Unfortunately most people do not make much…

In New Zealand we have a limited amount of banks and when you see them advertising they all look quite similar. They all say they will provide home loans with similar deposits and similar interest rates….

It seems obvious that if you want to speak to a banker you would go to your local branch, or if you want to speak to a mortgage broker then you would look for a local…

Some people will always get their mortgage broker to negotiate rates and refix their loans while others will deal directly with the bank. In many cases the banks want people to deal direct and actively promote…

You can Google almost any topic these days and get a variety of websites and blogs that contain information; however if you are looking for New Zealand mortgage blogs then we can list a few that…

It is common for people to phone their banks to check what they can borrow (to get pre-approvals) and while this may seem like the right thing to do this can also result in problems for…

For anyone either buying an existing property or building a new home with less than 20% deposit then deciding on which will be the best bank is not always an easy task. In most cases people…