New Zealand Home Loans hits the billion dollar mark

5 December 2012

New Zealand Home Loans hits the billion dollar mark

New Zealand Home Loans has reached a billion dollar milestone. This last year, for the first time, the homegrown mortgage company has lent $1 billion to New Zealand home owners – and counting. The company has a total home loan portfolio of nearly $4 billion.

The milestone was reached after a record week for the business where $31.3 million of loans were settled and a best ever loan month in November with $121.3 million settled. The previous best month was $109.3 milion in December last year.

New Zealand Home Loans CEO Mark Collins believes the result is a testament to its unique approach that prioritises getting clients out of debt, not into it.

“Our model seems to be striking a chord with New Zealanders who are treading carefully in today’s economic conditions and housing market, and making every penny count.”

“People are saying they are coming to New Zealand Home Loans because we don’t just lend money and leave the hard work of paying it off solely to them. They get ongoing advice, support, tools and reviews to manage and reduce their debt, and create wealth.”

Much of the growth this year has come from the Auckland market which as a region has grown over the past year from 27% to 43% of the company’s home loan portfolio with the number of branches doubling over the past two years to the present 18.

Mark Collins says the company’s increasing popularity as a solid franchise opportunity has been a big factor in its growth. “There is presently an unprecedented level of interest in new consultants entering the company’s training and mentoring programme from which they ultimately progress to become business owners. This, in conjunction with the growing awareness of the unique service New Zealand Home Loans offers, bodes well for our on-going growth which we are forecasting to be around 25% in 2013.” said Mark.

This growth was recognised earlier in October with New Zealand Home Loans being awarded a Deloittes Fast 50 award in the mature business category.

New Zealand Home Loans has a steadily growing nationwide network of 60 franchises. Ten new branches have opened in the last year, in:

• Auckland Metro
• Rodney
• West Auckland
• Auckland Urban
• Pakuranga
• Hamilton South
• Hamilton Metro
• Dunedin Metro
• Ashburton
• Timaru

The wholly New-Zealand owned and operated franchise company was set up in Hamilton in 1996 and on July 1st, 2012 New Zealand Home Loans became 100 per cent owned by Kiwi Group Holdings (who also own Kiwibank).

How New Zealand Home Loans works

New Zealand Home Loans operates a channelled mortgage model which helps its clients simplify their finances by operating them from one bank account, which consolidates and reduces interest costs and makes money management easier to track. All income and expenditure – including mortgage repayments – is channelled through this transactional account. The mortgage is arranged on a reducing principal and interest basis. There are no day-to-day transaction fees, and clients receive an EFTPOS/ATM card and have access to online banking and telephone banking.

Interest payable is calculated daily on the net total home loan balance. This solves the problem of savings accounts earning a lower interest rate for households than that they’re paying to service debt, and the problem of a household’s income going straight into a transactional account that earns them no interest. Under the New Zealand Home Loan structure, savings and salaries have the effect of earning the household the same amount of interest as that they’re paying for the mortgage.

Unlike a traditional revolving credit mortgage, the householder is not able to draw down the portion of the mortgage that has been paid off.

New Zealand Home Loan clients receive one-on-one advice and support from a consultant during the process of setting up the mortgage, followed by on-going support and reviews throughout their relationship, to ensure they stay on track to meet their day-to-day commitments and their wider, longer term financial goals.

A simple-to-use and easy to understand software package, called debtnav, helps clients manage their day-to-day finances and track their progress towards their goals.

New Zealand Home Loans can arrange comprehensive insurance to give homeowners a safety net to protect their finances and their families, including income-protection, life, and home and contents.

ENDS

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