Moving House
Buying your next home is a bit more complex than buying your first home.
Should you buy or sell first? What happens to your mortgage when you move?
If you’re looking to make a move, talk to us first. We'll help you review your financial position and make sure you’re getting the best deal and the right advice.
When you're considering a move, there's a lot to think about. We can help.
- Should you buy or sell first?
- What is bridging finance and how do you arrange it?
- What deposit do you need for your next home?
- Can you use your sale deposit for your next purchase?
- How do you align settlement dates to avoid extra costs?
- How do you choose a good agent?
We'll answer these and more. Our advisers are here to make the process easier, so you can spend more time on the important stuff - like searching for your next dream home. We've even got a handy guide with some sweet tips on buying and selling at the same time.
Why talk to Squirrel when you've already got a mortgage?
Review your financial situation
We'll make sure your mortgage is taken care of when you move house and ensure you've got the best rate and mortgage structure.
More lending options
We've got relationships with all the banks, plus non-banks too. More options means a better deal for you.
Our advisers aren't incentivised by lenders
They're paid the same no matter which lender you end up with, so you know you won't get pushed into a loan you don't want or can't afford.
Sort the deals from the duds
We love putting properties under the microscope. When you find a potential home, we'll check it out and make sure you're not buying a lemon.
Let's get started
Book a time to talk to an adviser today.
Check out the video of Courtney's story.
She's one of our favourite clients and we helped her and her family into their second home.
What happens to your mortgage when you move house?
What a lot of people don’t realise is when you move house, you can move your mortgage with it.
Say you’ve got a really good rate on your current mortgage and you don’t want to lose it. If you're still borrowing the same amount, we can move the mortgage rate from one property to another. This is a smooth process if settlement for both properties is the same day. Of course lining both up for the same day isn't always possible, so don't fret - there are options for that too, like bridging finance.
Another common option is paying off your home loan in full when you sell, and taking out a new one against the new property.
If you need to borrow more for the new property, we can approach the bank on your behalf and make sure you get the best deal.
When you’re repaying your loan once you’ve sold, you may have to pay break fees so before you sign anything, get in touch with one of our team to chat through your options.
Bridging finance
In a perfect world, you'd sell your house one day and land the perfect gem the next, then settle both on the same day. But we live in the real world where that's not usually the case. If you end up buying first, there are two kinds of bridging loans you could go for:
Open-ended bridging
This is when you buy first and intend to sell, but haven't sold yet. Banks are reluctant to do open-ended bridging finance unless you are in a strong enough financial position to support both mortgages.
Closed bridging
This is when you buy, and before settlement, your existing house is sold under unconditional contract but is yet to settle. This is generally easy to finance.
Moving homes? JB explains what happens to your mortgage in just over 2 minutes
FAQs
Buying and selling at the same time can feel like a balancing act, but with a little planning, it's totally manageable. We've answered a few questions to help guide you through the process.
More lenders, more options
Chat to a mortgage whiz
Not sure where to start? Book a chat and we'll give you a call to talk through your situation, and provide advice for your next move.
Have a gander at our blogs
You'll find some useful insights on the joys of moving house.
Whatever happened to KiwiBuild?
Launched with the promise of delivering an extra 100,000 (affordable) homes over 10 years, no one could accuse KiwiBuild of lacking ambition. But just six years later, and with only 2,300-odd homes to show for it, the programme was dead in the water. So just how did it all go so wrong?
Rodney’s Ravings: How fundamental economics shapes regional house prices
There's a reason why house prices are performing so differently across various parts of the country right now—and it all comes down to that good old economic principle of supply and demand. Guest writer Rodney Dickens dives into the numbers.
Investor update - February 2026
In this month's investor update: it's been a good run, but the time has come for us to wind down our Personal Loan investment class. Plus, an update on investor wait times, loan book performance and interest rates.
After some advice?
We're here to help.
Don’t just take our word for it
Darren
New Zealand
Very responsive and quick to act. Great advice and made it easy even with some tricky property issues that made lending much more challenging to obtain. I was only able to buy this property because we were the only ones (out of many serious purchasers) that overcame the issues and obtained suitable lending and insurance. Other deals had fallen through because the banks would not lend more than 50% of the property value (ignoring the dwellings).
Anonymous
New Zealand
Adam Clark looks after me really well. I sometimes have a lot of questions as I'm a first time home owner and he's always been patient an able to help and advise and together we have gotten some good outcomes so far. I highly recommend Adam
Amy & Jakeb
New Zealand
Ange was great running our numbers and made us feel at ease throughout the whole process. Our process between the first viewing and settling was only 6 week and Ange made everything happen very smoothly in the short timeframe we gave. Her communication was great. We are very happy. The life insurance referral was also a great process for us too.
Alex
New Zealand
Great clear and easy service. Thanks again.