The Shore has a particular shape to it: a lot of paid-off homes worth a great deal, owned by people on NZ Super who do not want to leave. That is the situation reverse mortgages were designed for, and it is why I specialise in them from an office in Takapuna.
Meet In Takapuna Or I Come To You
My office is at 1/2 Rangitira Avenue, Takapuna, on the ground floor with parking at the door. It is a few minutes from the Hurstmere Road shops and easy to reach from Milford, Devonport, Belmont and Hauraki.
If getting into Takapuna is a hassle, I come to you. Birkenhead, Beach Haven, Glenfield, Northcote, Browns Bay, Mairangi Bay, Torbay, Albany, Greenhithe and up to Orewa and Whangaparāoa are all a normal part of the week. Families often prefer a home visit because the adult children can sit in, the paperwork is to hand and nobody has to find a park.
What North Shore Home Values Mean For Your Borrowing Limit
Reverse mortgage limits are a percentage of the home’s value, set by age. On the Shore, where a modest family home sits around $1 million and a Devonport villa or a Takapuna waterfront property well beyond, that percentage translates into large sums.
At 70, Heartland’s limit is 30 percent of value: $300,000 on a $1 million home, $450,000 on a $1.5 million one. SBS Unwind lends about 20 percent at the same age. These are maximums and are almost never the right amount to borrow. The question I spend most time on is how little will solve the problem, because interest at around 8 percent compounds on whatever is drawn.
The flip side is that Shore property values have, over most decades, grown at a rate that keeps pace with or exceeds the loan, which is why a modest reverse mortgage here rarely leaves a family with nothing. Over a flat few years, as 2022 to 2025 were, the loan’s share grows quickly. I project both scenarios for every client.
Common Situations I See From Devonport To Albany
A couple in their seventies in Glenfield or Beach Haven whose house needs a roof, re-piling or a heat pump, with no savings left after helping the children into their own homes. A modest lump sum with a reserve for the next job.
A widowed homeowner in Milford, Takapuna or Devonport who can manage the day-to-day on one Super but not the rates, the insurance and the maintenance on a $1.5 million property. A monthly advance of a few hundred dollars, drawn slowly.
A homeowner in Albany or Greenhithe with a few years of mortgage still running who wants the repayments to stop. A reverse mortgage that clears the bank loan, after we have checked whether the bank would extend the term instead.
An adult child in Browns Bay or Torbay who has been handed a parent’s finances and wants someone in the room who does not work for the lender.
Cross-lease titles, common in the 1960s and 1970s subdivisions across Northcote, Birkenhead and Glenfield, come up often and are usually fine provided the flats plan matches the house. Apartments in Takapuna and Milford are assessed case by case. Older baches at Stanmore Bay and along the Whangaparaoa coast sometimes fall outside the lenders’ criteria on construction grounds.
How I Compare Heartland And SBS For North Shore Homeowners
Both lenders lend across the Shore. They differ on the percentage they advance at each age, on property criteria, on drawdown facilities and on equity protection. For a given house in Birkenhead at a given age, one usually comes out ahead, and sometimes one declines a property the other accepts.
I prepare a written comparison of both for your situation, with a projection of the balance at five, ten and fifteen years at today’s rate and a higher one. You take it to your family and to a solicitor; several firms in Takapuna and Albany do this legal work regularly and I can suggest names. If you decide to proceed I run the application through to settlement.
The lender pays me a referral fee on settlement, $2,000 from Heartland, which I disclose before we start. You pay nothing for the advice, and the fee does not change the rate or fees on your loan. My disclosure statement sets out how I manage that.
Book A Chat Near You
The first conversation is free, usually half an hour, and commits you to nothing. It is all set out in my disclosure statement.