Open homes are easy to fall in love with. The numbers behind them are what decide whether an offer is realistic. Before you spend a Saturday walking through properties, it helps to know four figures.
1. Your usable deposit
Not every dollar you have is deposit. Lenders want to see genuine savings, and they treat different sources differently:
- Cash savings — money you have built up over time is the strongest form of deposit.
- KiwiSaver — you may be able to withdraw most of your balance for a first home, leaving a small minimum in the account.
- First Home Grant — if you qualify through Kāinga Ora, this can add to your deposit, subject to income and property price caps.
- Gifts from family — often accepted, but usually need to be confirmed in writing as non-repayable.
Add these together and you have your real deposit. Then subtract the costs below, because they come out of the same pool.
2. Your borrowing capacity
This is the figure most buyers guess at. Lenders test your income against your living costs and existing debts, then check that you could still afford the loan if interest rates were significantly higher than today's rates. Credit cards and buy-now-pay-later limits reduce this number even if you never use them.
Deposit plus borrowing capacity gives you a purchase range. A property well above that range is not a stretch — it is a different conversation.
3. The 20% threshold
A deposit of 20% or more of the purchase price generally gives you access to the widest range of lenders and the sharpest interest rates. Below 20%, fewer lenders will consider the application, and a low-equity premium or fee often applies. It is still very possible to buy with less — it just changes which doors are open.
4. The costs that are not the deposit
Buyers routinely forget these, then find their deposit is smaller than they thought:
- Legal and conveyancing fees
- A builder's report and, for apartments or units, a review of the body corporate records
- A registered valuation, if the lender requires one
- Moving costs and initial repairs
A quick way to sanity-check a listing: take the asking price, subtract your deposit, and look at the loan that remains. If the repayments on that loan sit comfortably inside your budget with room to spare, the property is in range. If they only work on a perfect month, it is not.
Where to start
You do not need exact figures to begin. A short conversation can turn rough numbers into a clear range, and a pre-approval turns that range into something you can act on at an open home with confidence.
This article is general information only and not personalised financial advice. Everyone's situation is different — get in touch for guidance specific to you.