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The history of Squirrel
2021 - Thirteen years on
Squirrel's been around for 13 years now and it's been a journey, growing from just JB to over 70 strong and counting. But throughout it all, we've never lost sight of what we're all about - getting a better, fairer deal for our clients.
We have written over $8 billion of home loans and $100 million in peer-to-peer loans – helping out a lot of Kiwis in the process. Scroll down to go back through the years and see how we started.
2020
The year of the pandemic. Squirrel continued to grow, despite a year of uncertainty and turmoil we stayed true to our purpose. Growing our staff by around 50% and doubling our P2P lending, we launched some exciting new products that benefited both investors and borrowers alike including term investments into residential mortgages and bridging finance.
2016
Squirrel was the first to offer a secondary market to their P2P investors, offering them a way to sell their investments in the marketplace allowing them to get out early if they need to. Continuing to strive to offer a customer-centric service.
Squirrel Mortgages acquires Aspire Advisers, almost doubling the size of the company overnight.
2015
Squirrel Money peer-to-peer (P2P) lending launches. The first NZ P2P lender to be solely funded by Kiwi retail investors, lending to Kiwi borrowers. No institutions involved. Also the first to use a reserve fund to cover any losses meaning the investors get their monthly payments even if one of our borrowers misses a payment.
Squirrel takes all 27 employees on a trip to the Gold Coast, our first company conference. What goes on tour, stays on tour.
2008
On 29th January, John Bolton (aka JB) founded Squirrel during the midst of the GFC. Never one to shy away from a challenge, JB was sick of seeing the same old issues coming up again and again for home buyers. Nobody was in their corner, everyone was working on behalf of the seller.
JB felt it was time to even up the playing field so that's what he did with Squirrel. Squirrel is all about the buyer.
Elizabeth
Tirau, New Zealand
An awesome experience with Squirrel and Alfonso Jaques! A very challenging experience, with an amazing outcome! Highly recommended to anyone needing results!E
Laxmi
PARNELL, New Zealand
We wish to thank Alfonso, our representative at Squirrel, who has done an excellent job of enabling us to purchase our home.L
Daniel
Auckland, New Zealand
Extremely happy with our mortgage broker! They were professional, helpful, explained everything really well and the end result is us happy in our new house!D
Santoshni
Hamilton, New Zealand
Sunil Chandra was just awesome, he helped us with our home loan approval and he made it all easy. We were informed about at each step. Overall an amazing service. Will highly recommend. Thanks Ritesh and SantoshniS
Erin
Feilding, New Zealand
Emma Wallace was fantastic - great communication, fast turnaround, and very professional. Would highly recommend Emma and we look forward to working with her again in the future. Thank you Emma!E
Justine
Whangarei 0112, New Zealand
This is the third property we have purchased using Lindsay Hill. He is brilliant and keeps us up to date all the way.J
Margeaux
Christchurch, New Zealand
Just really easy and didn't feel pressured into anything because Brad didn't work on commission. He was great at explaining things to us and showing us how to save money on interestM
Tim
Auckland, New Zealand
We were first home buyers and had lots of questions. Squirrel made getting our first mortgage super easy.T
