grahamwookie

hi all, just wondering if anyone, well I guess many, will be buying homes in NZ?
Have you seen the interest rates? Up to 10%!

Anybody worried? My partner and I have shone here in Blighty but we want to keep her and rent it. Might have to sell.

CAN2NZ

Hi, yes they hug 10%. We just did ours for six months at 9.6%. Very high. There is some hope for relief as the year moves on. However, NZ lending institutions borrow in the international marketplace to lend out here in the form of mortgages. Due to the ABCP (subprime mortgage debacle) issue wholesale interest rates remain high. Some market watchers are looking for up to 1% reduction by the end of the year, early next year. Yes, it is spooky and lending criteria is tighter now than it was. However, a 25% or larger deposit and a reasonable income should see you into something. It is intersting that the more you borrow the lower rate you may pay.

TeamEmbo

When we got here last year we didn't have a large deposit to put down on our house so needed just slightly higher than 95% mortgage and we only had WTR visas. Branch had separate branch that dealt with such cases but we had to pay 1% over the floating rate, but we had that fixed for six months whilst our PR was processed. Once we had PR we were able to go back to the bank and re-negotiate a much more reasonable fixed rate. In between we also went back to the bank and got a loan against the home to purchase heat pumps but had to do this at 11.65%. Our car loan was at 29%!!! The guy who owned the garage we brought the car from said the interest rates here are always high. Not so many years ago a home loan was at 28%.