Borrowing Capacity Calculator

Understanding your borrowing capacity is a great first step, whether you’re buying your first home, looking to upsize, or considering an investment property.

Use our borrowing capacity tool below to get an estimate of how much you could borrow and take your next step with confidence.

1Property type

Loan purpose

Owner-occupier RBNZ debt-to-income cap: 6× gross income.

Loan term (years)

2Deposit

Deposit available ($)

Target property value ($)

3Your situation

Number of applicants

Applicant 1 — gross annual salary/wages ($)

Other regular income, after tax ($/yr) — bonus, self‑employed profit, overtime

Rental income — gross ($/week, all properties)

4Household & expenses

Your monthly living expenses ($/month, optional — leave blank to use the standard bank benchmark)

Dependent children (under 18)

5Other debts

Total credit card / overdraft limits ($)

Other loan/HP/other mortgage repayments ($/month)

Total balance owing on other loans/mortgages ($)

Credit cards are assessed at 4% of the limit per month, whether or not it's used — the standard bank approach.

Estimated borrowing capacity

Enter your details to see an estimate

Potential purchase price

Deposit available$0

Plus: estimated lending$0

Potential purchase price$0

Resulting LVR 0%

Explore a different purchase price

Purchase price$0

Loan required$0

LVR0%

Indicative monthly repayment

At % p.a.

On a loan of $0

How this is calculated

1. Net income: salary/wages are taxed using current NZ PAYE brackets plus the ACC earner levy, to estimate take-home pay. Other regular income and rental income (haircut to 75% of gross) are added on top.

2. Living expenses: the higher of what you declare or a standardised minimum benchmark: a base amount for the household, plus an amount for a second applicant, plus an amount per dependent child — the same structure banks use to floor declared expenses that look unrealistically low.

3. Existing debts: credit cards are loaded at 4% of the limit per month regardless of balance, plus any other loan, hire purchase or mortgage repayments you enter.

4. Serviceability test: your leftover income (UMI) is used to work out the largest loan repayable at the bank's stress-tested interest rate over your chosen term — not the advertised rate, a higher rate that builds in a buffer for future rises.

5. Debt-to-income (DTI) cap: RBNZ rules cap total debt (new loan + existing debt) at 6× gross income for owner-occupiers and 7× for investors. New builds are currently exempt. Your final estimate is the lower of the servicing-based and DTI-based figures.

This tool gives a general, indicative estimate only. Its calculations are calibrated against the real servicing mechanics used by a major New Zealand bank (income tax treatment, living cost benchmarks, debt loading and stress-test methodology), simplified into a fast, lender-agnostic ballpark figure. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a copy of any specific lender's tool, and every bank applies its own policies, buffers and discretion. Actual borrowing capacity can only be confirmed by a registered bank or mortgage adviser through a full application.

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Frequently Asked Questions

In simple terms servicing is worked out on:

Your income, minus your expenses and existing commitments. This is then tested against the proposed mortgage and the banks test rate.
Yes you can, each lender has its own thresholds for expenses, test rates and ways they test your ability to pay debt.
Banks generally look at your living costs, existing loans, the number of dependents you have, credit cards, overdrafts and apply their measures to these.

One of the main killers to borrowing capacity are short term debts, these cary high interest rates and can have a heavy impact on your borrowing capacity.

Clearing your highest interest rate debt before your lowest interest debt is a good rule of thumb.

Other key debts that impact your borrowing capacity are: Afterpays and Buy-now-pay later, these the lenders take into account the limits you have, even if you have no current repayments.
Applying for a mortgage is step by step process. The first place to start is having a discovery session with a mortgage adviser who can identify which lender suits your situation. You then supply them the required documents and information, they then submit it on your behalf to the lender and will work with you and for you to. get the best loan in place.
Yes it does - Car loans are generally at a shorter term between 3-5 years and at high interest rates of 8-13%. This the bank takes into consideration as a monthly expenses which reduces the total amount you could borrow.