Article: Law & Finance
Q & A For Hopeful Home Buyers With David Ryburn
Q:We’re first home buyers; is this a good time to buy?
A: Indications are that home loan affordability is improving in Northland, mainly due to the fact there is a high number of houses available for sale, but few are selling. Property values are continuing to decline across Northland, which means there could be some great buys available for first home buyers.
While no-one can predict when house prices will stabilise, it now takes less income to service a home loan on an average priced house than it did a year ago.
Q: What size deposit would we need for the banks to consider lending to us?
A: Westpac can offer flexibility around your deposit size as we take all applications on their own merit. If your combined income is pretty healthy but your deposit isn’t quite there, we’d consider lending to you. It depends on a number of factors so it’s best to talk to us to see what we can do.
With 5 months home loan pre-approval available from Westpac, you know how much you can borrow before you go house hunting - meaning you can shop with confidence. At Westpac our experienced Mobile Mortgage Managers look at your whole budget i.e. deposits, earnings, debt and outgoings. Even if you’re not sure if you qualify, it’s worthwhile having a chat with your local Mobile Mortgage Manager, David Ryburn about your home loan requirements.
Q: Should I go with floating or fixed interest rates?
A: In these volatile times, it’s difficult to try and predict where interest rates are going. To get the best of both worlds, you might want to split your loan into different chunks with a mix of fixed rate terms and a floating component as well.
For example, you could put 50% of the total loan on a long term fixed rate, 40% on a shorter term fixed rate, and leave 10% floating so you can make extra payments at any time on that portion.
Or you could put part of your loan on fixed rate interest-only, and the rest on a standard floating home loan where the balance reduces over time. You can then focus on the floating amount, paying it down as fast as possible.
You can find more home loan information on Westpac’s Smart Money Website: http://www.smartmoney.westpac.co.nz or at http://www.westpac.co.nz/housing. Nothing beats a face to face chat though, so call me to make an appointment.
