First Home Buyers - February 21st Is it Cheaper to Buy or Build A House in NZ To buy or to build – it's a simple question, for sure. But, unfortunately, the answer is a little more complicated. So Canstar decided to delve a little deeper into the question and crunch the …
First Home Buyers - February 18th Squirrel: LVR Restriction Tips for First Home Buyers It’s pretty tough going out there in the home loan market right now. Higher interest rates and new, hyper-prescriptive responsible lending laws have seen affordability and borrowing power take some big hits in recent months. That’s biting hard across the board …
First Home Buyers - February 16th Squirrel: 5 Big Hidden Homebuying Costs for FHBs Buying a home is (probably) going to be the biggest investment you’ll ever make. As a first home buyer, when you’re already fronting up such a hefty chunk of change, you’ll want to make sure …
Banking & Insurance - December 23rd Canstar’s Top Stories of 2021 Tempus really does fugit. Despite the year being dragged down by the surprisingly tenacious virus, the past 12 months have been a blur of awards, ratings and great stories here at Canstar. We've introduced some cool …
First Home Buyers - November 19th Squirrel: Mortgage Rate Forecast for 2022 In last year’s mortgage rate forecast, we were of the view that rates would drop below 2% and stay low, which they did for most of 2021. We also felt that house prices would begin to …
First Home Buyers - November 15th Squirrel: Is it Better to Fix or Float your Mortgage? This is particularly relevant right now, while everyone is talking up inflation and higher interest rates. One thing is for sure, whether you fix or float your mortgage, you cannot avoid paying higher interest rates. …
First Home Buyers - November 8th Mortgage Rates to hit 5%: How Much Will Your Mortgage Cost? Mortgage rates are already on the up. Back in mid-July, the average mortgage rates for 1- and 2-year fixed mortgages looked like this: July 2021, average rates: Term 1-Year 2-Year Average rate 2.55% 2.86% Now they look like this: November 2021, average rates: Term 1-Year 2-Year Average rate 3.44% 4.03% Source: www.canstar.co.nz. …
First Home Buyers - September 1st Mortgage Rates: How Quickly Will They Rise? Recently we've published a few stories reporting impending interest rate rises. Usually, we don't go in for divination. But when the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) and economists such as Tony Alexander are both forecasting rate rises, …
First Home Buyers - August 19th House Prices to Fall: A Good Time to Buy? For aspiring FHBs, the past 18 months have been hard. First came soaring house price inflation, then the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) announced it was going to tighten the loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions, …
First Home Buyers - August 5th Mortgage Rate Rises: How Much Will They Cost You? 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Blast-off! It’s not only billionaires lifting off. All indications are that interest rates are headed that way, too. Though hopefully not as fast or as high as Elon, Jeff and …