House hunting is a funny old process.
You spend months scrolling property listings, planning every weekend down to the minute around open home schedules, and for a while nothing really moves.
But then you find "the one", and your whole timeline shrinks.
Before you’ve left the viewing, you’re already mentally assigning kids to rooms, scoping out the right spot for your new vege garden, and sizing up whether your current fridge is going to fit in your (hopefully soon-to-be) new kitchen.
All of a sudden, the pressure’s on.
Maybe there’s an auction date or a deadline sale to work towards—or you’re up against another buyer—and now there’s a lot that needs to come together in a matter of days (or hours) so you can put your best offer forward.
The problem is, when the clock's ticking, traditional finance options don't always move fast enough.
If you’ve already got pre-approval in hand, you’re a step ahead of the curve.
But even then, there are things a lender still needs to sign off on before you can bid at auction or put in an unconditional offer.
And the bank’s timeline doesn’t necessarily make room for the fact that you’ve only got two days to make it all happen.
That's why Squirrel has launched its new 24-hour home loan approval service.
It's designed to give buyers fast approval when it matters, so they can move quickly on the right property. And all with the benefit of independent mortgage advice, the flexibility to still choose the best bank lender for your situation—and usually at no cost to you.
Here's three situations where it could make all the difference.
SCENARIO ONE: You fall in love with a property—then realise it's going to auction in two days' time.
It’s Sunday afternoon, and you’ve just walked out of an open home that ticks all the right boxes. It’s perfect, you’re stoked—then you double-check the listing: it’s going to auction on Tuesday.
Now, the thing with auctions is that if the hammer falls on your bid, you’re locked in. The house is yours. So you really need to be in a position to buy unconditionally before you throw your hat in the ring.
Even if you’ve been pre-approved for a loan, the bank still needs to sign off on the property first—and that can take time.
When you don’t have much time to spare, having to wait on traditional bank approval could leave you standing at the back of the auction room, watching on as someone else buys your dream house.
SCENARIO TWO: You find out you’re up against another buyer, so you need to put your best foot forward.
Even in a soft market, all it takes is one other interested buyer for things to get competitive.
Let’s say, for example, the property’s being sold by deadline. You’ve told the agent you’re going to put an offer in, thinking you’ve got a week or so to get your ducks in a row. But then the phone rings. They’ve got another offer on the table—a strong one—and the vendor’s now decided they want to bring the deadline forward to tomorrow.
Or maybe the deadline hasn’t moved, but the agent’s let you know it’s a multi-offer situation.
Either way, you want to put your best foot forward.
In this scenario, the highest offer isn’t always the winning one. The fewer conditions you’ve got, the less risk of the sale falling through—and for some vendors, the peace of mind that comes with an unconditional offer could be worth more than a few thousand extra dollars in the bank.
Of course, that’s easier said than done if you’re still waiting on the bank to approve your finance. Even if the bank’s saying everything looks good, getting formal approval could take a few days—and that’s time you don’t have.
SCENARIO THREE: The property market picks up, and the banks are getting slammed with applications.
Spring and summer are always pretty hectic in the property market.
Sellers are keen to list while homes are looking their best—and on the buyer’s side of the equation, people are often on a deadline wanting to settle and move in by Christmas, or before school starts up again.
That’s all well and good, but with everyone trying to get their deal across the line at once, it doesn’t take much before the banks are swamped with applications—and approval times can blow out pretty significantly.
And when you're working towards an auction or other deadline, waiting another week or two for the bank to come back to you isn't exactly ideal.
Giving buyers an edge when it matters
At Squirrel, we help thousands of Kiwi buyers through the home loan process every year.
And we’ve seen plenty of buyers miss out on a place they love, simply because they couldn’t get their finance sorted in time.
That’s why we built our 24-hour home loan approval: so you can move quickly when you need to, without waiting on the bank, and put yourself in the strongest possible position to secure the house you love.
So, how does Squirrel's 24-hour home loan approval actually work?
Our expertise as both a mortgage broker and a lender puts us in a pretty unique position to help buyers get their finance sorted fast.
As advisers, we know exactly what lenders are looking for when assessing a mortgage application, and we’ve invested heavily in building own in-house technology, so can carry out the same sorts of checks and balances a bank would to make sure the numbers all stack up.
Then, rather than waiting for traditional bank approval to come through, we can step in and back you with our own committed funding to get you across the line.
Importantly, the way the process is designed means you’re not having to give up your choice of lender.
Once you’ve got a signed sale and purchase agreement, your Squirrel adviser will work to place you with the best bank lender for your situation.
A few other things worth knowing:
- Approvals are property-specific. We assess both you and the house you're looking to buy, rather than just giving you a general borrowing limit.
- The turnaround is typically 24 hours (excluding weekends and public holidays), once we've received all the paperwork we need.
- You're not locked into a Squirrel home loan. Once you've secured the property, we'll work with our banking partners to find the best long-term mortgage for your circumstances.
- There are a few eligibility requirements. You'll need to be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident living in NZ, be in permanent PAYE employment, and have at least a 20% deposit (including a minimum 5% in genuine savings, which can include KiwiSaver).
Credit and lending criteria apply, and you can find the full eligibility details and terms and conditions on our website.