Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
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Buying your first home can feel like learning a new language under pressure, and the sale and purchase agreement is where that pressure peaks. We open the contract and walk you through the parts that matter most—names, price changes, deposits, conditions, and the one date that starts your finance clock—so you can move from uncertainty to control without blowing your timeline or budget.
We dig into why your purchaser name has to match your ID and loan documents exactly, how to handle counters and initials without voiding your deal, and what to do when the default 10% deposit clashes with a KiwiSaver-funded reality. You’ll learn how to rewrite the deposit clause to reflect a 5% or fixed-dollar deposit, direct funds to the vendor’s solicitor’s trust account, and avoid common traps at auction, tender, and deadline sale. We also break down solicitor undertakings for early KiwiSaver withdrawal, realistic processing timeframes (five to fifteen working days), and how to set dates that won’t trip you up when providers move at different speeds.
Then we step through the conditions appendix—where finance, builder’s reports, valuations, LIMs, and sale-of-your-home clauses live—and talk frankly about domino chains where multiple parties must go unconditional in sequence. We share practical negotiation tips for fast settlements, small cash deposits with KiwiSaver top-ups, and why as a buyer you should never date the agreement yourself. Your broker can set your budget and loan structure, your agent and solicitor can shape your clauses, and together they keep your deal stable from offer to settlement.
If you’re a first-home buyer in New Zealand using KiwiSaver, this episode is your field guide to a cleaner, calmer contract. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s house-hunting, and leave a review with your biggest S&P question—we’ll tackle it in a future show.
Hello and welcome back to that Home Long Hub. Today we're gonna talk about something very important to any buyers, first-time buyers, specifically first-time buyers, when it
comes to sales and purchase agreement. Yes. I'm joined with Kunch. By Kunch. I don't know anymore. But hey Kunch. Kioda, how are you? Wonderful. Thank you. So sales and purchase agreements.
SPEAKER_00
Yes. So I thought we'd just unpack the sales and purchase agreement. I've seen a few um sales and purchase agreements come through this week where I've noticed that because most of our buyers are first-home buyers and they're reliant on their Kiwi Saver as their deposit. Um, so I thought we'll just unpack that um part of it in terms of on the sales and purchase agreement, you'll see your name as the purchaser, the vendor's name, then your price.
SPEAKER_01
So, first point, make sure your names are written correctly.
SPEAKER_00
Yes, make sure the spelling is correct. Good point, too.
SPEAKER_01
Because especially with our names. I know, right? There were instances where I've seen with my clients um
not the full name written there, or mistakes are made in their surnames. Or couples that got married recently, and if she's using new name or old name, make sure you're using the correct name because that will be on the title of the property and on your loan documents. So if the sales and purchase agreement name does not match what our loan is trying to do, then we're gonna have some trouble. So uh point number one, make sure the names match. Then next one.
SPEAKER_00
So next one, next part of the um sales and purchase agreement is the purchase price. So you'll see where you want to um make your offer and the amount you want to offer. So make sure you write that in. And then the next part is But wait, okay, there's more.
SPEAKER_01
So every point you make, I'm gonna make a comment about it. So when you write the price down and the offer gets submitted to the vendors, the vendors have the right to
either accept the price, and by accepting, they will initial that price. So you initial, they will initial that price. And then if they don't accept that price, they will cross it out, they will put their price that they'll counter with. Yep, counter-offer. And then if you agree to it, call, you initial it. And if you don't agree, you can cross it and counter offer again. But each time you do that, you must initial. If there are no initials, again, that sales and purchase agreement, null and void. Yes.
SPEAKER_00
Carry on. Okay, now we go through to the deposit side. So at the start of the episode, I mentioned that most of our buyers at the moment
are first home buyers who are reliant on their KiwiSaver to um utilize for their deposit. With um some of our clients, they've only got a 5% deposit. So we're going through um Kying Order and um doing a 5% um home loan. Automatically on the sales and purchase agreement, there's it um reverts to a 10% deposit uh to be paid to the agent's trust account. However, so what do they do if they don't have 10% deposit? Exactly. What are they gonna do? Where does it come from? So the 10% is coming from your Kiwi Saver, your solicitor will help you withdraw that side of things, but you need to cross out that um 10% and write 5% to be paid to vendors' trust account. Yeah, vendor's solicitor's trust account upon release of KiwiSaver.
SPEAKER_01
You know, the hilarious part right now, we're actually doing also live on um TikTok, and I have a real estate agent that joined in and he's listening to this conversation. So, real estate agents, if the first home buyers don't have 10% deposit, please allow them to pay less. And the thing is, they can withdraw the Kiwi Savers, which brings us to the point about Kiwi Savers for the deposits, but it has to be done well ahead. So the moment the offer is accepted, yes, they can do the paperwork to withdraw the Kiwi
Saver to pay as a deposit. But not all solicitors agree to it. Yes, because the solicitors have to take personal undertaking to withdraw the Kiwi Saver and keep it safe until you go unconditional and settle. Yeah. So this is a very important point when you are searching for the solicitors, ask them that question. Can you withdraw my Kiwi Saver for the deposit? And the solicitor will say yes or no to you. Yeah, good point. But you can. There are solicitors that do it. If you need recommendations, come to us. We know the ones that can do it for you. But not all solicitors can.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah. So just a recap on that not all solicitors can do the withdraw for your um sorry, for your deposit to be paid to the vendor's um lawyer's trust account. Some will only execute the withdrawal at settlement. So yes, do check on that. But it is possible to take out your key part of your KiwiSaver towards the deposit or your whole Kiwi Saver towards the deposit.
SPEAKER_01
Absolutely. That's awesome. That's really, really cool point. Um, and that applies to auctions as well, because a lot of our clients want to go to auctions. Yes. And if you don't have that deposit ready to go, because majority of it might be in KiwiSaver, be careful.
Talk to the agents ahead of time. Yes. And tell them that I can only, you know, give you this much. Yes. The rest is in KiwiSaver and I can't withdraw that on time.
SPEAKER_00
And at times as well, actually, some of our clients do have some cash in their um accounts. So say if you've got $5,000 sitting there, you can actually make that variation, I believe, on the sales and purchase agreement or on the auction to say um $5,000 deposit, provided that the vendors are happy with that as well. Um, if you truly want to go to auction.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, absolutely. I've also seen some that settle really fast. For instance, um, you know, if people putting an offer going unconditional, and then they have to settle within 10 days. Again, negotiate that deposit with the agent and the lawyers because you're gonna settle so fast. Yeah, surely two weeks they can wait for that deposit to come through when you settle.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, and also just be mindful that with KiwiSaver, it can take um a wee while. So some providers may take only five working days,
some providers may take up to 15 working days as well. So something to be mindful of when you're purchasing your first home or utilizing your KiwiSaver as a deposit.
SPEAKER_01
Exactly, exactly. No, that's uh some really, really good points, guys. If you've got any more comments um or life experiences of what happened to you, would like to hear from you. You know, feel free to flick us a question, let us know, because this program is for you at the end of the day. You know, we've we we're creating this content for you to educate yourself on how to put yourself in the best possible position to get that house. Because a lot of houses are being sold by tender or deadline sales, you know, and you're under a lot of pressure and you may not be thinking right in that moment.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and also there's because of the different ways of how properties and houses are being sold, um, do ask the questions
to your agent as well, like, you know, what is a tender? What is an auction? What is a deadline? So they um are skilled and educated um to be able to support you on that side of things.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, cool. What else is on that sales and purchase agreement that they should be watching out for?
SPEAKER_00
So there is a um another appendix in that sales and purchase agreement, which I think at the top of my head is like clause 21 or in the 20s somewhere where it gives you the additional um as an additional page where it gives you like the additional conditions. Conditions, that's right.
SPEAKER_01
So often solicitors will cross out that section where it says, you know, builders yes, finance yes or no, you know, valuation yes or no. So sometimes the solicitors will say to you, cross it out and then go see appendix 21. Yeah, I think it's 20. Yeah, 21.1. And then on that one, this is where you can list all of your conditions. Yeah. And look, for instance, if you are selling a house and you want to buy a new house, you can put a condition there that you will only accept their offer if you found something.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you know. Yeah, and I actually have a situation like that. There's actually three parties in this domino effect to make this um um yeah, to make this purchase happen. Yeah. So it's like the buyer has to go unconditional, the vendor's got to go unconditional, and then the vendor's purchasing something else, and they've got to go unconditional.
SPEAKER_01
Everybody, sometimes, and we've seen them a lot. I'm just trying to remember which year was that that it was like that.
SPEAKER_00
It was probably post-COVID.
SPEAKER_01
Post-COVID, I think. What was the longest one you've seen of uh the domino effect? Maybe only three weeks. Uh no, like of parties. I had six parties.
SPEAKER_00
The parties, no, only three.
SPEAKER_01
I had six parties one time. I almost died looking at the it was crazy, absolutely crazy. And it all fell on that client that came to me. And if I didn't get him across the line, everyone else disappoint dude um disappoint six others. I know, right? The pressure fell. My goodness. We managed to get him across the line and then all the other ones as well. Yeah, amazing. That was crazy. There was like five or six parties, they were just like boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, no, this is really cool. Um so the other important thing that I always find funny that gets missed by the lawyers and the agents, the date. Oh, yeah, date the sales and purchase agreements. Sales and purchase agreements. They forget to date them and they put conditions like, oh, you know, 10 days uh finance. It's like
Yeah, because the date that the client date to sign isn't the effective date, it's the date on the sales and purchase agreement that's on the first page.
SPEAKER_01
Exactly. You know, so you have to make sure that um as a buyer, do not put that date. Yeah, because the vendors might take a few days to sign it, and you don't want your finance to start ticking from when you sign it, you want the finance to start ticking from when they sign it. So do not date under any circumstances. As a buyer, do not date the sales and purchase agreement. Once the vendor has signed it, then it gets dated. And then the next working date, this is when your finance kicks off and things start um rolling for you. So this is a very important point. Yes, and then the other thing with sales and purchase agreement, you do have to read every single page, you have to initial, and then you have to sign at the end.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you've got to initial every page, and there's a lot of reading to do if you want to read.
Yeah, it's interesting because if you are buying a property as a mortgage e-sale, a lot of pages will be crossed out. Okay, so as I think it's as where is. So a lot of warranties that are pre-built and that sales and purchase agreement do not apply. Yeah, now on void. So they will be crossed out. Um, but again, if you do have more questions about sales and purchase agreement, your solicitor will be the one to tell you more about it. Yeah. Also your agent as well. And your agent. We can navigate you, we can help you in a certain way, but we cannot legally provide advice on sales and purchase agreement. We can tell you what your cap is, for instance, you know, how much money you can spend. For instance, if you've got a pre-approval up to 500 or 600k or a million, we can tell you those things, but we can't tell you specifically how to sign the sales and purchase agreement. We'll get in trouble for that. Um, awesome. Is there anything else you want to add for the sales and purchase agreement segment?
SPEAKER_00
Well, I at the top of at the top of my head, I think that's as much as we can cover as mortgage advisors um in terms of sales and purchase agreement. Any nitty gritty stuff, refer to your
Absolutely. Absolutely. Awesome country. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you. And I look forward to our more episodes. Yeah, next episode. Thank you.
