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
How A Three-Week Refinance Offer Overheated The Banks
A bank drops a 1.5 percent cashback and the market erupts. We pull back the curtain on the three‑week window that sent refinances and purchases into overdrive, jammed call centres, and turned five‑day turnarounds into sixteen. From the first spark at the end of November to the mid‑December scramble, we trace the arc: who actually qualified, why a 20 percent deposit became the golden ticket, and how falling house values quietly locked out thousands who bought at the peak.
We talk through the messy middle—applications flooding in, one major bank opening and then shutting intake within a week, others honouring only files lodged by a set date, and advisers chasing valuations to hit settlement cut‑offs. The human cost shows up fast: service drops for new and existing customers, pre‑approvals stall, and front‑line teams burn out during the busiest month of the year. If you’ve ever wondered how a well‑intended incentive can backfire, this case study lays it bare with real timelines, client scenarios, and the operational choke points no one sees on the billboard.
There’s a strategic twist too. Many borrowers who pocketed the cashback were going to settle with that bank anyway—great for them, not so great for acquisition. We lay out a smarter playbook for next time: prepare documents early, get valuations ready, check realistic equity, and confirm whether the bank will honour your application if queues blow out. You’ll leave with practical steps to seize future offers without risking delays, plus a candid read on what lenders should fix before launching the next headline‑grabber.
If this deep dive helps you navigate the next big offer, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s weighing a refinance, and leave a quick review so others can find us.
Buy your first home in NZ Weekly Webinars
You thought it's not possible or the dream is too far away? Come to my webinar and I will show you, you are much closer to your dream, than you think you are!
Join Here - https://bit.ly/4m9SL72
For those that have got a lot of money during the last three weeks, it's because they've refinanced. Haha. I thought I'll start with something smart, but not really smart because a lot of people missed the boat to refinance. A lot of people didn't know there was a massive offer on the table. But also ca the banks were feeling really generous for the deals that we're gonna settle with them anyway. And people got extra, extra cash in their pockets. So, Kunch, let's talk about 1.5% cashback offer that we've never seen before. And all of a sudden we see this offer come on the table. Yes. What happened? The aftermath.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, one of our big banks decided to, you know, throw out a 1.5 cash to clients that qualify. So you had to have 20% deposit and refinances, basically. They were trying to get refinances. But also, if you were purchasing and you had a 20% deposit, you qualified within that window. So they gave about a three-week window for that as well. Then all the other banks follow suit. Then everyone just went, Woof, we want to do that. We want to get that. So it just got all manic, really. At the busiest time of the year, anyway. Correct. So they decided to do in December, which is the most busiest time of year. Well, in the end of November. End of November.
SPEAKER_00:It came out end of November, and it was supposed to finish mid-December for the deals that were supposed to, you know, complete and finish. And what they realized quickly is the volume was so high, they were not able to cope. One of the banks shut down straight away. Literally, I think they opened their doors for like a week. And then a week later they were like, oh, hold on a second, we can't handle this. So we're not going to take any more deals. The other couple were quite good. They said, look, if any applications that were submitted before the certain date, we'll still honor this 1.5% cash back. But the problem I see what ANZ has not seen coming was they actually affected our clients that wanted pre-approval. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Pre-approvals and also the ones that were over 80% that had live deals as well, because it slowed down their queue. So we would it ended up being, you know, a chasing game as well. Like we got, you know, clients who had offers accepted. We needed the banks to approve the property, approve the registered valuation and things like that. We're chasing, we're chasing. Yeah, so it was a little, it was amazing, the 1.5. I even tried to get it myself, but then I went not dealing with this madness. But I think you were too busy working. I was too busy working and helping the clients, right? So then so yeah, it was an amazing deal right before Christmas as well. So if you your loan draws down this week, uh well, you know, by the end of this week, then you you're gonna get a nice little sweet package to spend for Christmas. But um, yeah, it was a little bit manic. Do you think we'll see it again?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's another thing, right? It was one of the first ones we've ever seen in our lifetime of our career. Yeah. And and again, we've done an episode on that, guys. Go back and listen to that one. But I don't know if we'll see to this volume again. I hope they've learned their lesson that this created really good offer, but really bad customer service.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. Yeah, the customer service just dropped. Service dropped for clients, dropped for us as well, and dropped for their existing customers as well. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think overall the feeling that we were left with as overworked, frizzled out, at the busiest time of the year, even during COVID, like we were really busy during COVID, you know, as advisors. But this created a complete different type of business. Yeah. And also the problem is a lot of clients that wanted to refinance are the ones that bought a house three years ago. Yes. And three years ago was at the peak of the market, and now the price has gone down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, lost a lot of them lost their equity. So they they didn't qualify for the refinance, and then having to manage you know, to explain that to them so they could understand that as well was really hard telling them one of their biggest assets has dropped in value. And some were even in negative equity. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's quite a good learning curve, especially for me as well, being a you know, one year into the advisor game. So it's definitely taught me a few lessons as well. But yeah, let's hope the banks think about it next time. Because it's not even just us advisors, us being ex-bankers as well, it's their staff as well that has to do with the stress.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, and that's another thing as well, right? Like, as we've seen short, you know, in that short space, as I've just mentioned, that some clients, sorry, some banks could not handle the client volume. So they had to shut down. And how is that gonna have the effect on their clients?
SPEAKER_01:And the turnaround time went from, you know, five days to ten days to 16 days.
SPEAKER_00:Like it was and now we're getting response that the banks are not gonna look at the applications until next year. Yeah, they they're gonna pick it up next year. So it's definitely created a lot of chaos and a lot of overtired and overworked workers because we were all working like 24-7 trying to get through the volume, and also we had two staff on leave at the same time. So terrible timing. Mum was getting married, it's okay. She had an excuse. She was allowed, the other one had to go to Lady Gaga concert. Also, good excuse. But um, the other thing that was really blowing my mind away is that you know, the clients that were gonna settle with that bank anyway, they just got extra cash. Like, which is great for them, yeah, but it's not like it created extra client base for those banks. Like that offer was supposed to drive new clients for them. Yeah, but what ended up happening, I think, is banks just giving away more money.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they had to honor those settlements, right? That were before.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because remember we had to redocument a couple of loans as well for people because they were like, we want that too. Yeah, so it created that extra. It created admin.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely more admin, more work, but hey, yeah, we've come out of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but I think my eye is still twitching, and I think we all need hairdressing appointments to get our grey grey roots covered. Awesome guys, thank you so much for listening in. And look, next time, if this offer is out, keep your eye, keep your eye to the ground. Keep your eye open out, keep your ear to the ground and eye on the ball, and reach out to your advisor because there were instances where we really did help some of our clients to get extra cash in their pockets. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Thank you, Kunch. Thank you. Bye.
