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Ballooning costs and tougher servicing requirements are causing a lot of headaches for property investors these days, and planning ahead has never been more important.

For those who have strayed down the treacherous path of having all your loans with one bank, the consequences have started to bite.

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 you’re not getting stung by any unexpected costs along the way. Let’s take a look at the things you need to factor into your budget to avoid any big surprises.

In a perfect world, your bank would let you know every time there was an opportunity for you to save money. But the world isn’t perfect so it’s up to you to stay on top of your home loan. It could save you thousands of dollars. How? Here are seven things to consider.

You heard it here, but also let’s acknowledge up front that I’ve called it before and been wrong. This situation is different though. The OCR has reached the bottom, bank margins are tight, and term deposits can't go much lower.

I’ve been in a few crises. The first was launching Squirrel at the height of the GFC, with a crashing housing market. Then my head contractor went bankrupt part way through my big property development. Now? We're faced with Coronavirus. But this one is different. We're all in it together and it's out of our control.

The adage 'cash is king' is never truer than in a crisis. Cash gives you the flexibility and freedom to respond to changes. Now is a good time to have a small cash buffer in your mortgage. The thing to remember is banks don’t want you to default on your mortgage, and they have temporary options in place which are designed to support those who find themselves in financial hardship.

What does Coronavirus have to do with your KiwiSaver funds? More than you might think. No need to panic, but we thought it was worth putting a word of caution out there for anyone who is looking at purchasing a property in the near future with KiwiSaver as part (or all) of their deposit.

When it comes to property, the risk is that borrowers (and speculators in particular) think tomorrow will be better than today and don’t act. Watching a speculator in action is like putting a frog in water and gradually increasing the temperature. The frog never jumps out.