Latest news with #DavidCunningham
1News
11-08-2025
- Business
- 1News
How many home loan applications are turned down - and why?
Only a small number of people applying for home loans are being turned away - and usually there is a way to get them across the line in future, brokers and banks say. Loan Market adviser Karen Tatterson said she would normally talk to clients before she set up a meeting to understand their financial situation and whether they were in a position to go ahead with a home loan application. She said in 80-90% of cases, people were able to apply. "If they are not then I would normally undertake some planning with them and set out a pathway to get them in that position." That might include setting savings goals and a timeline to get to the point where they would qualify for a home loan. ADVERTISEMENT "I would then agree to a check in in a nominated timeframe - say three months or six months depending on their circumstances and agree to touch base with them again for a review. I often do a periodic check in to see how they are going with their plan. "Ironically, most people I see or speak to are actually ready to buy. They are more often than not seeking an understanding of and support through the approval process." The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including dire state of our heart health system, where unspent charter school money might go, and thieves make off with a pricey haul of Labubu dolls. (Source: 1News) There was $4.6 billion in new lending for property purchases in June across 7700 borrowers. At Squirrel, chief executive David Cunningham said fewer than 5% of applications for a home loan were declined. "An adviser has multiple options so that would likely be materially lower than for a bank. Also, low-quality deals would be less likely to be submitted by a broker." He said people were sometimes told to reduce or eliminate their personal debt and buy now pay later, and build their savings. ADVERTISEMENT Westpac said when an application did not meet its criteria, the bank tried to work with the customer on ways to improve their chances of success in future. "Therefore, while we can't give an exact number of customers who aren't approved for lending, the vast majority are ultimately approved. The most common reasons home loan applications may initially not be approved are that the customer does not have enough deposit, or doesn't meet our serviceability criteria to repay the loan." BNZ general manager of home lending product James Leydon said the number of applications turned down was low. "We understand how stressful buying a home can be and we want to make sure the experience is as smooth as possible. This includes letting customers know what Their likelihood of being able to secure a home loan is, prior to any paperwork or formal application process kicks off. "Having an in-depth conversation upfront prior ensures our home loan partners not only understand the customers' situation at the time of enquiry but also enables them to make suggestions on how a customer can improve their financial situation and secure a pathway to home ownership." Glen McLeod, head of Link Advisory, said most people he met were eligible to apply, even if they first believed they were not. ADVERTISEMENT "When we assess their situation, we explore a wide range of low-deposit purchase options, including support through Kāinga Ora's First Home Partner and the First Home Loan scheme. These initiatives are designed to help first-home buyers with smaller deposits enter the market. "It's also possible to secure a loan of up to 90% of the property's value through several banks, especially when clients have a live deal in place and meet affordability criteria. Some lenders may consider 95% lending under specific conditions, though this is less common and subject to stricter assessment. "For those just beginning their home ownership journey and who haven't yet saved a deposit, we work closely with them to build a plan. This includes strategies to grow their deposit, improve financial habits, and assess affordability. In these cases, it's rarely a 'no'-more often, it's a 'not yet'." He said sometimes people could be approved with help from family. "Ultimately, fewer than 5% of the people I speak with are unable to move forward. That means for the vast majority, there is a way-and we're here to help them find it." What do you need? Income ADVERTISEMENT The income you need to be able to buy a house depends on your circumstances - banks look at things like whether you have kids, how many cars you're running and what other financial commitments you have. As a general indicator, a couple with a joint income of $150,000, two children and two cars might be able to borrow about $900,000. You'd need an income of about $102,000 in that scenario to borrow $500,000. Deposit You generally can get a loan with a deposit of 10%, although it helps if you have a deal already signed with a seller (with a finance condition). If you're a couple earning less than $150,000 a year, a First Home Loan could be an option - this can mean you only need a 5% deposit. Debt Cunningham said it was common to see people with $20,000, $30,000 or $40,000 of debt. But he said it was a problem when the required repayments reduced the amount of income people had available to service the loan. People were often advised to focus hard on paying off debt before they submitted their application. "It might be that you have a flasher can than you need so you might think about trading down." ADVERTISEMENT He said a $5000 credit card debt might not be an issue but when there were three or four loans, it could become a problem. "The big thing is what is the repayment That's a deduction from their income." Buy now pay later could be a headache, too, he said. "For people looking to buy a house, it's not a good idea to use." Decent credit Cunningham said banks would also want to see a good credit history. If the applicant had defaulted on a debt or was frequently behind on their bills, it mighrt make it harder to get approval. It helped if there was a good explanation for why it had happened, he said. As part of the process, the lender or borrower would run a credit check that was "very comprehensive", he said. "Make sure you're taking care of all your bills and if there's something missed, make it up as soon as possible."
RNZ News
25-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Is 420 the magic credit score number for a home loan application?
If you have bad credit, you might be wondering whether a bank will ever be willing to give you a home loan. A person's credit score reflected how well they had paid off credit in the past and how likely they were to be able to service their debts in the future. It takes into account factors like how long you have had credit accounts - that could also include things like power and internet bills - how often you make your payments on time, how much you owe on loans and credit cards, what types of credit you have, how often you ask for credit and any defaults or insolvencies in your history. There are three different credit bureaux in New Zealand but, for all of them, the lower your score, the poorer your credit rating. Centrix ranged from zero to 1000. It said anything below 496 was poor and about 10 percent of the population was in that range. Centrix noted people in this bracket were more likely to be rejected for a loan. Missed power or phone bills could sometimes impact a person's credit score. (File photo) Photo: Shutterstock / Allie Schmitz People with slightly better scores might get a loan but have extra conditions. For example, anything below 299 is low and 300 to 499 represented "room for improvement". David Cunningham, chief executive at mortgage advice firm Squirrel, said about 420 was the level at which banks would draw a line. "Some people's scores are way lower than expected. The biggest thing we see is missed minimum payments on credit cards over several months. "One-off has a negligible impact. It's when it becomes a deteriorating trend." He said people also needed to watch out for power bills and phone bills. Sometimes a missed payment could affect someone's credit without them realising, for example if they had moved house and not paid a final bill. But he said banks were generally open to an explanation if people could provide information about how they got into trouble. Another mortgage adviser, Jeremy Andrews at Key Mortgages, said it was a "blurry line" that borrowers did not want to push too far. "A score of 400 to 500 trending upward with good recent conduct might be better than a score of 500-plus with recent bounced payments or dishonours, unarranged overdraft fees. Any recent collection steps or agencies having to step in will be much harder to mitigate." He said other things could be easier to fix or explain. "Historical events affecting credit scores such as not paying bills on time, or just tipping into arrears, could be a short term problem and easily fixed. But if a borrower has not been paying either financial companies or property related bills such as property rates, on time every time, that can be a much bigger problem to resolve." Head of Link Advisory Glen McLeod said banks had internal thresholds. "That said, it's not just about the score itself. Lenders look at the full picture: what kind of credit issues are showing up, how recent they are, and what caused them. "Life events-like a separation, illness, or unexpected financial hardship-can reflect on your credit score, even if they were temporary. That context matters and can influence how a lender views your application. "If the credit history is too risky for a mainstream bank, non-bank lenders may still be an option. They tend to be more flexible, though that usually comes with higher interest rates to reflect the added risk." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reinventing Legal Transaction Management: Legatics Powers Data-Driven Firms
The hidden value of legal transaction data LONDON, June 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Legatics, the legal tech company transforming how legal transactions are run, announces the release of its latest whitepaper: The hidden value of legal transaction data. The whitepaper explores how law firms can turn the overlooked data in legal deals into a competitive advantage, driving smarter, faster, and more collaborative transactions and a vision for how firms can make use of increasing volumes of data in the future. As legal operations grow increasingly complex, law firms are seeking tools that not only streamline deal execution but also surface insights from the process itself. In this new whitepaper, Legatics lays out how deal data – often buried in emails, spreadsheets, and static checklists – can be harnessed to improve efficiency, transparency, and decision-making. Amid a wave of legal tech transformation, many firms still struggle to capitalize on the wealth of data generated throughout transactions. As David Cunningham, Chief Innovation Officer at Reed Smith, explains in the recent Lexis Nexis Legal Tech Trends 2025 report: 'Firms have relied on lagging financial indicators to run and tune the business but will increasingly invest in a more complete set of data and leading, rather than lagging, business measures.' Legatics meets this need head-on by capturing deal data and surfacing trends that help legal professionals refine strategy and increase efficiency across future matters. 'Deal management has the potential to generate fascinating data,' said Anthony Seale, CEO of Legatics. 'We're helping firms move toward a model where every transaction generates value not just for the matter at hand, but for the firm's broader strategy.' The insights in this whitepaper offer law firms a blueprint and future vision for using existing workflows to generate new value, without requiring a total overhaul of how deals get done. Download the whitepaper: The hidden value of legal transaction data About LegaticsLegatics is a legal transaction management platform that streamlines how lawyers collaborate and close deals. With real-time permissioned checklists, status dashboard, signature management and closing set automation, Legatics provides clarity, reduces risk, saves time that is typically written-off, and enhances the client experience. We are trusted by the world's leading law firms, including many of the AmLaw 100, UK top 100 and Chambers Band 1 ranked law firms globally and have had matters originate in over 60 countries. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at CONTACT: mediacontacts@
Scoop
12-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
What You Need To Know If Your CV Is Less Than You Owe On Your Property
Many property owners have seen the capital value of their properties drop in the past week. , Money Correspondent Many Auckland property owners have seen the capital value, or CV, of their properties drop in the past week. Valuations have been updated for the first time since 2021, when New Zealand's property market was hitting post-Covid heights. The new CVs are dated to mid-last year, and typically dropped 9 percent, on average. For some buyers, particularly those who purchased recently, that's been uncomfortable reading. But mortgage advisers say, in general, the CV of a property doesn't matter a lot to lenders. While a drop in value would decrease an owner's equity in a property on paper, they say lenders rely on other methods to determine a property's value and the owner's stake in it. 'It's yesterday's news,' said David Cunningham, chief executive of Squirrel. He said while people might look at a property's CV because it was public information, it was no longer used in calculations for a mortgage. 'In the old days it was but you know now you've got all these models from Cotality and Valocity and so on – and you can go on to or One Roof and find a pretty damn good valuation. They've got the benefit of being pretty much real time.' He said people did not need to worry even if their CV showed they now owed more than their home was worth. He said banks talked about home loan customers being 'delinquency managed' which meant that it was only if they stopped paying their home loans that the bank would investigate. Borrowers who were facing trouble with repayments should talk to the bank before that happened, he said. Some borrowers are paying low-equity premiums because they took out loans with less than 20 percent deposit. These margins can be removed once the loan is paid down, or the value of the property increases to the point where the owner has 20 percent equity. But Cunningham said the new CVs would not affect that process either. People who had built up enough equity to have the margin removed would typically be using banks' desktop valuation data to do so. 'Registered valuations might come into play if it's an unusual property or in an area where there aren't a lot of property sales. So some of the more provincial locations and properties … but for major centres the valuation models, called AVMs, automated valuation models, are what the bank uses.' Glen McLeod, head of Link Advisory, agreed banks would usually use desktop valuations to get an idea of the value of a property, or a registered valuation in situations where it was necessary to be precise about a value. 'If you have a sale and purchase agreement for $850,000 and the registered valuation comes in at $850,000 that's what it's worth even if the CV is $750,000.' Loan Market mortgage adviser Karen Tatterson agreed CVs were rarely used by banks to assess loan-to-value ratios, if ever. She said the problem was that CVs were quickly out of date. 'The Auckland Council CVs that were released yesterday are based on a value ascertained approximately a year ago so they are already out of date and do no reflect the true 'market' value of the home.'
Scoop
12-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
What You Need To Know If Your CV Is Less Than You Owe On Your Property
Article – RNZ Many Auckland property owners have seen the capital value, or CV, of their properties drop in the past week. Valuations have been updated for the first time since 2021, when New Zealand's property market was hitting post-Covid heights. The new CVs are dated to mid-last year, and typically dropped 9 percent, on average. For some buyers, particularly those who purchased recently, that's been uncomfortable reading. But mortgage advisers say, in general, the CV of a property doesn't matter a lot to lenders. While a drop in value would decrease an owner's equity in a property on paper, they say lenders rely on other methods to determine a property's value and the owner's stake in it. 'It's yesterday's news,' said David Cunningham, chief executive of Squirrel. He said while people might look at a property's CV because it was public information, it was no longer used in calculations for a mortgage. 'In the old days it was but you know now you've got all these models from Cotality and Valocity and so on – and you can go on to or One Roof and find a pretty damn good valuation. They've got the benefit of being pretty much real time.' He said people did not need to worry even if their CV showed they now owed more than their home was worth. He said banks talked about home loan customers being 'delinquency managed' which meant that it was only if they stopped paying their home loans that the bank would investigate. Borrowers who were facing trouble with repayments should talk to the bank before that happened, he said. Some borrowers are paying low-equity premiums because they took out loans with less than 20 percent deposit. These margins can be removed once the loan is paid down, or the value of the property increases to the point where the owner has 20 percent equity. But Cunningham said the new CVs would not affect that process either. People who had built up enough equity to have the margin removed would typically be using banks' desktop valuation data to do so. 'Registered valuations might come into play if it's an unusual property or in an area where there aren't a lot of property sales. So some of the more provincial locations and properties … but for major centres the valuation models, called AVMs, automated valuation models, are what the bank uses.' Glen McLeod, head of Link Advisory, agreed banks would usually use desktop valuations to get an idea of the value of a property, or a registered valuation in situations where it was necessary to be precise about a value. 'If you have a sale and purchase agreement for $850,000 and the registered valuation comes in at $850,000 that's what it's worth even if the CV is $750,000.' Loan Market mortgage adviser Karen Tatterson agreed CVs were rarely used by banks to assess loan-to-value ratios, if ever. She said the problem was that CVs were quickly out of date. 'The Auckland Council CVs that were released yesterday are based on a value ascertained approximately a year ago so they are already out of date and do no reflect the true 'market' value of the home.'
