Home deposit calculator for New Zealand buyers

What this calculator does

You choose a purchase price to test. It is a figure you are considering, not a valuation, and not a price PropertyKete knows for any address. The calculator takes your chosen percentage of that price as the deposit, treats the rest as the loan, and compares what you would need with the money you say you have.

Deposit

The part of the price you pay from your own money, as a percentage of the price.

Loan

The price minus the deposit: the amount you would need to borrow.

Loan-to-value ratio (LVR)

The loan divided by the price, as a percentage. A 20% deposit is an 80% LVR.

Upfront costs

One-off costs of buying, such as legal fees, a valuation or building inspection, and moving. You estimate these yourself. They sit alongside the deposit rather than inside it.

Reading the results

Cash needed is the deposit plus your estimated upfront costs. Each is counted once: costs are not part of the deposit, and they are not taken off the deposit a second time.

The funds you enter (savings, a KiwiSaver first-home withdrawal and any gifted money) are added together and compared with the cash needed. The difference is shown as a surplus or a shortfall.

The “if you used your funds” view works the other way round. It sets your upfront costs aside, treats everything left as the deposit, and shows the percentage, loan and loan-to-value ratio that would result. It is useful when your funds fall short of the percentage you picked.

The saving timeline divides any shortfall by the amount you expect to save each month and rounds up to a whole month. It assumes your savings earn no interest and the price does not change. If there is a shortfall and no monthly saving, there is no date, and the calculator says so instead of guessing.

A worked example

Take a price of $800,000 and a 20% deposit. The deposit is $160,000, the loan is $640,000 and the loan-to-value ratio is 80%.

Suppose $100,000 is in savings, $40,000 is a confirmed KiwiSaver first-home withdrawal and $20,000 is a gift: funds of $160,000. With $10,000 of estimated costs, the cash needed is $170,000, so the position is a $10,000 shortfall. Saving $2,000 a month closes it in 5 months.

The same numbers, with the costs set aside first, leave $150,000 for the deposit. That is 18.75% of the price, a loan of $650,000 and a loan-to-value ratio of 81.25%. These are illustrative figures, not typical ones.

Is 20% the minimum?

Not necessarily. Twenty per cent is a common benchmark, not a rule that applies to every buyer or every loan. Whether a lender will lend with a smaller deposit depends on its own policy, the borrower’s circumstances, the costs involved and the rules that apply to the lender.

The 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% rows in the scenario table are arithmetic on your price. They do not show that any lender would lend at those levels. A smaller deposit also means a larger loan, which means more interest over the life of the loan; the repayments calculator shows how much.

The Reserve Bank’s loan-to-value settings change from time to time, so this page does not repeat the current limits. Its own page, linked under the sources below, is the place to check them.

KiwiSaver and gifted money

Enter a KiwiSaver amount only if you have confirmed you can withdraw it. The calculator never assumes your balance is available, and a first-home withdrawal is not the same thing as your whole balance.

For gifted money, enter only amounts that are confirmed. Lenders and solicitors have their own requirements for gifted deposits, so check yours before relying on it.

What this leaves out

• Your lender’s valuation. A lender may measure the loan against its own valuation rather than the price you agree, so the loan-to-value ratio shown here is an approximation.
• The cost of owning the home, such as council rates, insurance and maintenance. This calculator does not estimate them. PropertyKete’s guides explain some of the checks to make before buying.
• A buffer. A surplus is not spare cash; most buyers want money set aside after settlement.
• Income, debts and credit history, which decide whether a lender will lend at all.
• Estimates for legal, valuation or inspection costs. The upfront-costs box is your own figure.

Common misunderstandings

• “Deposit” and “cash needed” are different numbers. Cash needed includes the costs of buying.
• A surplus here does not mean a lender would approve a loan. It only means your entered funds cover your entered deposit and costs.
• Loan-to-value ratio compares the loan with the property’s value. It says nothing about your income.
• The savings timeline is not a forecast. Real accounts may earn interest, and real prices move.

If you are looking at a specific home

PropertyKete does not know what a particular home will sell for, and these calculators do not look anything up from an address. If you are researching a specific property, search its address to see which public hazard and planning checks PropertyKete holds for it, then come back and test price scenarios here.