There is a choice of banks available for you when you come to live in New Zealand…

You may want to keep it ethical and to use a bank that is solely Kiwi (NZ)

Here are your choices

ANZ – considered to be one of New Zealand oldest banks and owned by a subsidiary of Australia and New Zealand Banking group of Australia

ASB – owned by the commonwealth bank of Australia and a popular choice of Bank in New Zealand

BNZ – owned by NAB an Australian bank and considered one of the big 4 NZ banks

Kiwibank – Possibly the only 100% New Zealand owned and has good reputation

Westpac   – Another Australian owned bank

Interest Rates!!!

Bank mortgage interest rates have been high but seem to be improving slowly and are predicted to drop a little further next year, thank goodness!

I have listed some mortgage rates here:

You can work out for yourself what you can afford and I would also say that the rental market prices are very similar monthly to mortgage payments.

ANZ – dependent on your deposit – currently rates are between 6-7.5%

ASB – 5.69 (fixed term rate) to 7.89% variable rate

Kiwi bank – 5.69% for fixed rates to 7.39% variable rate.

Obviously, the larger deposit you have the better rate will be available to you. The higher rates are the current variable rates and the lower rates are usually fixed from 6 months/12 months and 18 months to 2 years.