It’s always imperative to compare home loan lenders and mortgage products. Whether you’re a first home buyer, a property investor, or a homeowner looking to refinance, you can potentially save thousands of dollars in fees and interest charges by securing the best value mortgage product for your home-buying needs.
To help Kiwi property purchasers choose the right home loans, each year Canstar’s expert research panel reviews all the main mortgage products in the market to discover those that deliver consumers Outstanding Value, and to reward the best lender with our prestigious Bank of the Year Home Loans Award.
Bank of the Year Home Loans: BNZ
Congratulations to BNZ, the winner of Canstar’s Bank of the Year Home Loans Award 2026. The award recognises that BNZ delivers mortgage products that combine the best features with the lowest costs, plus provides great customer service at every stage of the mortgage journey.
This year, BNZ receives three Canstar Home Loan awards:
- Bank of the Year Home Loans
- Outstanding Value Investment Home Lender
- Outstanding Value Investment Fixed Home Loans
When awarding BNZ its Bank of the Year Award, our research team noted that BNZ’s result was underpinned by strong all-round performances across the owner-occupier and investment profiles.
Our researchers were especially impressed by the ease of BNZ’s mortgage application processes, and the extra repayment options offered.
The stand-out features of BNZ mortgages include:
- Availability of principal-and-interest and interest-only home loans
- Instant property valuations
- Overseas income considered when assessing loan applications
- BNZ’s TotalMoney variable-rate home loan offers 100% offset with up to 50 linked accounts at no additional cost
Canstar’s Outstanding Value Home Loans
For this year’s awards, our researchers assessed 52 mortgage products from the following nine lenders:
- ANZ
- ASB
- BNZ
- Kiwibank
- SBS Bank
- Sovereign*
- The Co-operative Bank
- TSB
- Westpac
*Note that Sovereign stopped new mortgage lending on 01/04/26, after the close of our research period.
Mortgages were rated across five different profiles:
Each home loan reviewed was awarded points for the array of features it offers. However the most important factor considered by our research panel was the mortgage product’s overall cost. The top-rated mortgage providers in each profile are the winners of our Outstanding Value Home Loan Awards:
Residential Home Loans
Below are the 2026 winners of Canstar’s Outstanding Value residential home loan awards:
Residential Fixed |
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ASB |
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Westpac |
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Residential Floating |
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The Co-operative Bank |
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Residential Line of Credit |
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The Co-operative Bank |
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Investment Home Loans
Below are the 2026 winners of Canstar’s Outstanding Value investment home loan awards:
Investment Fixed |
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ASB |
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BNZ |
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Investment Floating |
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The Co-operative Bank |
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Outstanding Value Home Loan Lenders
Our research team also rewards the mortgage providers that offer overall value to borrowers across residential and investment lending. This year, three lenders earn our Outstanding Value Home Lender Awards across residential and investment lending:
Residential Lender |
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Westpac |
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Investment Lender |
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ASB |
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BNZ |
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In the market for a home loan? Canstar can help!
If you’re considering buying a property, Canstar can help make the process a little easier. In addition to our rankings and awards for Outstanding Value Home Loans, our free and easy-to-use comparison tool covers all the major players in the home loan market.
Not only does it help you quickly and easily find the products with the lowest rates, it also shows which lenders and mortgages have earned our prestigious Star Ratings, which are awarded on the basis of expert analysis. To compare rates hit this button:
Compare home loan rates for free with Canstar!
About the author of this page
Bruce Pitchers is Canstar NZ’s Content Manager. An experienced finance reporter, he has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in Australia, the UK and NZ, including ACP, Are Media, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. As a freelancer, he has worked for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority and major banks and investment companies on both sides of the Tasman.
In his role at Canstar, he has been a regular commentator in the NZ media, including on the Driven, Stuff and One Roof websites, the NZ Herald, Radio NZ, and Newstalk ZB.
Away from Canstar, Bruce creates puzzles for magazines and newspapers, including Woman’s Day and New Idea. He is also the co-author of the murder-mystery book 5 Minute Murder.
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