A rough borrowing limit from your own numbers, the price range it opens up, and a check on what stands between you and buying. Nothing is saved or sent.
Household income under $150,000 may qualify for the Kāinga Ora First Home Loan with a 5% deposit.
An indication from your own figures, not a lending decision or financial advice. Banks use their own living-cost benchmarks, test rates and rules for bonus, overtime, self-employed and rental income, and may lend more or less. The debt-to-income cap is the Reserve Bank’s limit for most owner-occupier lending (since July 2024); banks may lend some above it. Nothing you enter here is saved or sent.
Happy with the range? A pre-approval turns it into a figure a lender stands behind. Then look up homes in your range: every property page shows an estimate of its value and what it last sold for.
They check that your income, after tax and living costs, could keep up repayments at a test rate above today’s rates, and they apply the Reserve Bank’s debt-to-income limit, which caps most owner-occupier lending at six times income. They also look at your deposit, credit history and the property.
Most lending needs 20% of the price. Banks can lend some loans with less, but ration them and often charge more. The Kāinga Ora First Home Loan accepts 5% if your income is under its caps.
Yes. Lenders count the whole limit as debt, used or not, and assume a repayment on it. Reducing or closing cards you do not need can raise what you can borrow.
No. It is an indication from figures you type in. A pre-approval comes from a bank or mortgage adviser after they have checked your income, spending and credit.
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly repayments and the interest over the loan.
Your balance as a price, and homes at it in the suburb you pick.
What a median home costs against local incomes, town by town.
What your KiwiSaver could put toward a deposit.
The steps from saving a deposit to settlement day.
Buying with 5–20% deposit, and what it costs.
What it is, what to bring, and how long it lasts.
What extra repayments or a lump sum save.
A rough cost of breaking a fixed rate early.
Whether moving your mortgage pays, after every cost.
Every lender’s advertised rates, side by side.
Advisers and firms near you.