Mortgages

[g]

Does anyone know the likely time you would need to have a job in NZ before you could get a mortgage? We have quite a chunk of capital to take with us from our house sale here but will still need to top it up as we are looking to settle around Wellington and it looks pretty pricey! :icon_confused:

[netchicken]

Heck they are throwing money around over here at present. I imagine as long as you can show that you can pay it off, by having a stable job, they would be more than happy to give you money...

Time is not an issue, immigrants wanting mortgages must be a very common occurance.

BTW I went with bankdirect, which is an online bank, a subsiduary of ANZ I think. It was very good.

[g]

Thanks Netchicken! I was panicking we would be stuck renting for a year! Thanks for info about the banking as well. So many to choose from so great to have a recommendation. ::):

[netchicken]

Good article on mortagages...

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3191260a13,00.html


A "silly" mortgage rate price war had an impact on ANZ National Bank's latest profits, but they are still respectable, according bank boss Sir John Anderson.

The recently merged bank showed an operating profit after tax of $180 million, in line with the September quarter.

That included merger costs, with millions more being spent on staff as ANZ recruited more frontline staff in an effort to turn around its poor image among customers.

However, operating profits after tax and before goodwill and integration costs, were down 7 per cent to $234 million for the quarter, bank chief financial officer Michael Rowland said yesterday. The lower underlying profit was partly because smaller mortgage interest margins undermined red-hot lending growth. That left net interest income up just 2 per cent to $482 million for the quarter.

The bigger hit came from from a drop in other income, down 7 per cent to $197 million, from lower capital markets and treasury returns, Mr Rowland said.

Asked about the mortgage price war, Sir John said: "How do you define insanity?"

Bank of New Zealand cut two-year fixed rates from about 7.4 per cent in September to a low of 6.9 per cent late last year to grab market share, with ASB and others following.

"It really got quite silly," Sir John said. "Everyone lost out."

The price war mainly affected the rollover of existing loans. Demand to borrow remained "extremely strong", with ANZ's December and January figures the best for four years.

Now most fixed rates are 7.7 per cent, with National and Westpac at 7.8 per cent, pushing profit margins back from close to 30 basis points to more normal levels above 80 basis points.

Margins are better than they were before the price war.

However, Sir John admitted that the National Bank had cut mortgage rates from 18 per cent to 15 per cent in the early 1990s to gain market share. It had improved its share by 5 per cent in just a few months.

The ANZ National merger was unusual in that it did not involve cutting staff and closing branches. Since early last year the merged bank has added about 400 more staff, almost all in frontline branch positions.

In the past, ANZ Bank cut staff and branches. Its customer satisfaction rating has been the lowest among the big banks and it lost market share in the past five years.

Adding more staff was part of the ANZ "turnaround strategy", Mr Rowland said. "We needed more people in the branches to drive better service."

Before the merger, National had more than 4600 staff, compared with ANZ's 3700.

The two banks held about 40 per cent market share in the key areas and the aim of the merger was to hang on to that share.

"To maintain that (share) we had to focus on customer service," Mr Rowland said, with ANZ coming closer to the way National Bank did things.

ANZ customer satisfaction had risen significantly and was now equal to Westpac.

ANZ, with 145 branches, plans to lift branch numbers "significantly" in the next couple of years. National has 158 branches.

Merger integration costs were expected to reach $220 million over two years, including shifting ANZ's computer systems from Australia to New Zealand this year. The two banks' computer systems will not be brought together.

[Propertytallk]

I agree with the comments above - with a sizable deposit you will have many 1st and 2nd tier lenders keen to throw money at you.

Before you jump into that check out:

http://www.propertytalk.co.nz/modules.php?name=cannex

Here you can get all the lastest information on the best performing lenders including CANNEX (independent financial services research org) ratings on the best deals. Often we fall into the trap of just looking at interest rates when selecting a mortgage - and lenders are on to that so they throw in 'hidden costs'. With this link you can find out who is doing what and get the best deal for you. It's all free too.

Cheers,

Donna