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If you’re familiar with us, you’ll know that at Squirrel we don’t like to pull punches so here goes. Heartland Bank came out with a staggering mortgage rate of 1.99% fixed for 1-year. Naturally everyone got excited, but what is it actually? Since then, no other banks have followed.

There are numerous reasons to regularly review your mortgages and make sure you still have the right overall solution for your lending. Part of that includes not putting all your eggs in one basket, and splitting your lending across different banks to avoid sticky situations.

As a general rule of thumb, any property investor who has at least six rental properties is viewed as a "professional" property investor through the eyes of the bank. And the way these investors are treated by the banks is markedly different to someone whose main income is not from property.

There’s no doubt that there will be some good buying opportunities over the next twelve months. To make the most of them you will need to be cashed up and ready to pounce. It’s about having the confidence, knowing you can land the deal, but also not misreading your lenders and their lack of appetite for risk.

Business banking can be tricky. Depending on the bank and the bank manager you’re dealing with it can be as straight forward as a personal transaction, or it can feel like you’re being put on trial for a crime you didn’t commit.

There’s been a lot written about the 'First Home Loan’ programme in the press recently, particularly around changes to the deposit requirements. We thought it would be a good time to cut through some of the noise around these loans and explain what it means for your average first home buyer.

I've been amazed by the growth I've seen in the non-bank lending sector over the last 18 months, and I see this trend continuing, for a number of reasons.

Working with development and commercial property funding, price is often an obstacle that I come up against. Many people have little understanding of how risk-based pricing works, and it can come as a bit of a shock when pricing is uncovered.

A mortgage isn't something you set and forget. It should be reviewed regularly with the ups, downs, plot twists of life and interest rate fluctuation. Especially if you want to pay it off as fast as possible and save money on interest. If you haven't had yours reviewed in a while, here are 5 simple things to consider.

For the last while we’ve been grappling with ever tightening rules on interest-only for investors, and that’s just the beginning of the hurdles. Servicing is getting stricter and investors are having to jump through a few hoops to keep the banks happy.

The Hayne Report was released in Australia recently, and brought about some stern recommendations for the lending sector. The standards have been put in place for the best interests of New Zealanders, however, like anything that is done by the government, they can often carry unforeseen circumstances. Let's take a look at how property investors could be affected.

It's become common practice in NZ for banks to offer cash backs with new mortgages, whether that's a refinance or a new purchase. One of the advantages of using a mortgage broker is they can help maximise your cash back.