That Home Loan Hub
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!
That Home Loan Hub
Flood Risk, Insurance Pullbacks, And First-Home Lending On New Zealand’s West Coast
Buying a home on New Zealand’s West Coast sounds simple until you try to secure insurance, line up a valuation, and satisfy your finance clause—all while lenders and underwriters grow cautious about flood risk. We open the door on what’s really happening across Westport, Greymouth, and Hokatika, and share a first-home buyer’s story that shows why due diligence can make or break your purchase.
A builder’s report became the turning point: after struggling to find anyone local, our buyer paid extra to bring in an out-of-town inspector. The findings were stark—foundation cracks, a 50 mm drop in part of the house, and seized windows. That report protected her deposit and her future budget. We break down how private sales still need full checks, why a LIM and builder’s report are non-negotiable, and how to time each step so your offer stays alive.
We also tackle valuation delays and what they mean for finance conditions. In smaller centres, a valuer can take weeks, not days—far longer than standard 10–15 day clauses. We talk through practical workarounds: request longer timeframes up front, escalate with panel firms, or choose lenders who accept alternative valuation methods when appropriate. Then we move to insurance, where Section 72 flags and flood-zone mapping (including across Kapiti) can trigger declines even without a history of flooding. The path forward is targeted: shop the market, lean on specialist brokers, present risk evidence, and secure terms your bank will accept.
If you’re planning to buy in a hazard-marked area, this guide arms you with a plan: book reports early, negotiate realistic conditions, and secure insurance options before you commit. Share this with a friend on the hunt, and subscribe for more smart, grounded advice on navigating New Zealand property. Got a West Coast story or tip we should hear? Message us and join the conversation.
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Hello and welcome back to that Home Loan Hub. Kunch, hello. Kioda, how are you? Good. You always ask how am I? That's so nice. How are you? I'm good, really good. That's good. Um, the sun is shining, the weather is improving. Um, however, there are some parts of New Zealand that I want to talk about. Yes. That may not be doing so good and the impact it has on our first-term buyers. Yeah. Yeah. Especially first-term buyers.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, let's cover that area of the country. Which area of the country am I talking about? We're talking about Westport, people. Westport. Yes. So Westport is a town in the South Island. Westport, Hokotica.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That whole area. Greymouth. Greymouth. Yeah. So what we've noticed is that we have a few clients coming through from that area. And I know my good friend Patty Gower. Hey Patty, if you ever listening to this, he covered a lot on insurances in that area. That a lot of insurances are pulling out because of natural disasters and the constant flooding and the constant claims. So it's becoming a little bit harder to obtain insurance there. Yes. But also what we've noticed is you can't get lending.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. So some lenders actually won't even lend to that Westport Hookatukka um area, Greymouth, which is actually quite disappointing because we have people that live there and want to buy and own homes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So what do you do? My goodness. But we do have other lenders that can still lend. So fear not. We do have some lenders that can lend. However, the recent issue we've discovered was one of our clients and the experience that this client was having, builder's report. She wanted to get a builder's report on the property.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And she rang me and she said, I cannot find a builder in my area that will do a builder's report. Wow. And she had to get someone out of town. She had to pay extra. I think it cost her like$1,200 in the end to get this builder's report done. But it saved her life. Yes. Let's talk about that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, our last episode we spoke about um buying privately, you know, through um your landlord or through a friend or, you know, colleagues or something like that. So we spoke about that. We actually mentioned, you know, do your due diligence, like still get the builder's report done, still get that limb report done. And case in point.
SPEAKER_01:Right. She got the builder's report done and it came back that the property has serious foundational um issues.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so there's cracks in the foundation. The piles are okay, apparently, but um part of the house has actually sunk like 50 mil. Yeah, 50 mil.
SPEAKER_01:And apparently the windows are now shut, can't even open the windows. They're jammed because of that. Yeah. So she has a dilemma because it's a private sale, it's a friend, and she's like, oh damn, what do I do? You know, do I buy from this friend, yeah, but then have to sink in, you know, God knows how much money to renovate. Correct. Or do I pull out? Yeah. And she wanted to pull out because they just don't have the funds. They're first-time bias. Correct. But also, um, the issue was that particular region, what we've noticed is valuations, and they're taking forever. We've ordered one and it's gonna take a month to get a report.
SPEAKER_00:A month or a valuer to go out to where's he traveling from? God knows. Hey, that's a new career. Maybe we should do that. Yeah, like where is he traveling from? Is he like riding a boat there rather than flying there? Canoeing, canoeing across a whole month.
SPEAKER_01:That's a huge issue, right? Because um, if a client puts 10 days for finance or 15 days for finance and the valuation is part of it, yeah, then um the client is stuffed, they can't fulfill their obligations under that finance clause if the valuation is going to take a whole month. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So, so definitely, guys, if you are looking to buy in the area of um is it west coast of New Zealand?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah, Westport, Greymouth, Hokatika, that side. Yeah, yeah, and the West Coast.
SPEAKER_01:If you're looking to buy in that area of New Zealand, please, please, please do your due diligence and uh, you know, make sure you can get builders' report, make sure you can get valuation done well ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean like that um area of our country probably does move at a slower pace than any other, um, but yeah, you still got to get those done. It's quite interesting because I thought the wasn't it mining or something was about to like boom and things in that area. So you'd think people are moving into the area and setting up, you know, little businesses and things. I thought mining was like shut down. I'm not too sure. Maybe we need to look into that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but yeah, let us know. Let us know if you are in that area of New Zealand, if you've got friends in there, like what are you guys seeing? What are you finding? You know, we would love to hear from you direct because you know what we're seeing is definitely massive delays, inability to obtain professional reports in a timely manner, yeah, and therefore postponing the purchases, and then insurance is going to be an absolute huge one. Yeah. Um, I actually want to cover around insurance a little bit because we had another case not in Westport, this side of um South Island. An agent sent me a client to get insurance sorted. Really interesting, because we're in Carpete, 99% of Carperty is considered to be flood zone. Yeah. And a lot of those properties have what we call section 72. 72. And with that section 72, it means that the you know hazardous, it's got a flag on it that it's hazardous. But the owners that lived in that property did not have any issues with that property over the last 15, 20, 30, 50 years. And a real battle is a lot of insurances not accepting insurance. And I've heard AA has pulled out as well. Unless you already have some sort of insurance with AA, they don't cover anything around carpet. So I had lots of clients come through as well that we can help them with those insurances. And I thought, wow, that's becoming a real issue. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So carpet is uh classified as flood zone or ponding, ponding, yeah, ponding zone, everything's ponding.
SPEAKER_01:So um, so again, guys, if you if you're struggling with insurances and stuff, there are providers that will still insure you, reach out to us, we can help with that, especially if there hasn't been a case of flooding at all at all in that area, but it's just marked as ponding, marked as hazardous. Um, would love to help you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye, bye.
