5 First Home Buyers. 3 Cities. 1 Month. Here’s What I’m Seeing in the Market.

August was a great month for first home buyers. I helped 5 of them move into their new homes — and looking at the numbers across all 5, it paints a really interesting picture of where the New Zealand property market is at right now.

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The Properties

• 2 purchases in Auckland — purchase prices between $900,000 and $1.1 million
• 2 purchases in Wellington — purchase prices around $700,000
• 1 purchase in Timaru — purchase price in the $400,000s

The difference in property values across those three locations alone tells a story. What gets you a home in Timaru looks very different to what gets you through the door in Auckland — but first home buyers are finding a way in all three markets.

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The Part That Surprised Me Most

Out of all 5 clients, only one of them had a 20% deposit.

That’s worth sitting with for a moment. Four out of five first home buyers settled on a home without a full 20% deposit — and they did it through a main bank.

What I am seeing on the ground is that banks are becoming a lot more open to high LVR lending right now. That means if you have been putting off buying because you don’t have a full 20% saved, it is genuinely worth having the conversation. The landscape has shifted.

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What First Home Buyers Are Actually Spending

Saving a deposit is one thing — but a lot of first home buyers don’t fully account for the costs that come with purchasing a home on top of that. Here’s what I am seeing on average across my clients:

• Legal fees — roughly $2,500 to $3,500 depending on the complexity of the purchase
• Building report — typically $600 to $900
• LIM report — this one can vary depending on the council
• Miscellaneous costs — things that pop up along the way

All in, most of my first home buyers are spending somewhere between $3,500 and $5,000 to get through the purchase process. It is not a number that should catch you off guard — but it does catch some people off guard if they haven’t planned for it.

The good news? Most banks are currently offering a minimum of $5,000 cash back for first home buyers. In a lot of cases that contribution covers the majority — if not all — of those purchase costs, which is a meaningful help when you are already stretching to get your deposit together.

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Afterpay — Let’s Talk About It

Something I am seeing consistently across first home buyers right now is Afterpay. It is still running rampant in New Zealand, and from a lending perspective it is not ideal.

I want to be clear — what you do with your money is entirely up to you, and I am not here to tell anyone how to spend it. But what I will say is this: a lot of my clients are very aware of the difference between a want and a need, and the willingness I am seeing from first home buyers to pay off their Afterpay balances in full and close the accounts before applying is genuinely encouraging.

Banks look at your spending habits closely. Open buy now pay later accounts signal a pattern of spending that lenders pay attention to — even if the balances are small. Closing them out shows financial discipline, and that matters when someone is assessing whether to lend you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you have Afterpay or similar accounts open, it is worth having a conversation about tidying those up before you apply.

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What This Means For You

If you are a first home buyer sitting on the fence — wondering if you have enough, whether the market is right, or whether your deposit is too small — August showed me that people are getting into homes in all corners of New Zealand, at all different price points, with less deposit than they thought they needed.

The market is uncertain, yes. But uncertainty cuts both ways, and right now there are opportunities that weren’t there 12 months ago.

If you want to understand where you sit, flick me a message or give me a call.

Or if you know anyone who is thinking about it, feel free to pass on my number.

022 610 3768