How to apply for a home loan.
Feel confident as you move towards buying your new home with our step by step process and guides.
When to apply.
You should consider applying for a home loan at the start of your house hunting journey. A conditional approval 1 will give you an understanding of how much you can afford to borrow to buy your new home. Knowing this will keep your house hunt focused and realistic.
What you need to apply.
So we can check the loan meets your needs and is affordable for you, we require details of your income, proof of deposit, the amount you want to borrow, your expenses and the property details, if you have them.
We have created the list below with a bit more detail that outlines what you should provide, to help get your application sorted as quickly as possible.
- Your income: If you are a salary or wage earner, you will need to provide three months of statements or three consecutive payslips. If you are self-employed, you will need to provide your latest financial statements prepared by your accountant or your recent IR3b Summary from New Zealand Inland Revenue.
- Proof of deposit: This could be from savings, KiwiSaver, other funds, or gifts.
- Proof of expenses: If you don’t already bank with Westpac, we will need three months of bank statements from your main transaction account(s) or if most of your transactions are made from your credit card, we’ll need those statements. We may also require confirmation of insurance premiums, body corporate levies you pay, or will pay.
- If you have a home loan or personal loan elsewhere, we’ll need either bank statements or loan agreement/documents that show your current loan balance, loan limit, remaining loan term, loan interest rate, and current loan repayment amounts and frequency.
- For any other debt, such as student loans, hire purchases, Buy Now Pay Later or credit cards, we’ll need statements from the finance company or provider.
- Amount you want to borrow and what the loan is for: For example, to buy a home, build a new home or buy an investment property.
- Property details: The type of home you're looking to purchase or if you’ve already made an offer to purchase a property, we’ll need to see your signed sale and purchase agreement.
- If you're new to Westpac: We will need to verify your identification and proof of your current address. Read more about acceptable forms of identification and address verification.
The process.
Apply
You can choose to apply in branch, via a Home Loan Expert, or existing customers can also apply via Westpac One® online banking.
Conditional approval
If you’re applying in a branch or via a Home Loan Expert, we can often give a conditional approval on the spot (subject to eligibility and responsible lending inquiries) for straight forward applications where all required documentation is provided.
Note, if there's a second applicant they will also need to agree to the application and a credit check.
A conditional approval gives you an idea of how much you can borrow, based on conditions and responsible lending inquiries. With this you can now start looking for a house that you could call home.
