PHOTO: Hopeful first-home buyers are worried their mortgage applications won’t be approved before lending restrictions return in March. – Newshub; Getty
Hopeful first-home buyers are worried their mortgage applications won’t be approved before lending restrictions return – meaning they’ll have to stump up twice as much cash.
A record number of mortgage applications has caused a backlog at banks ahead of the March deadline.
Newshub can reveal one major bank is so overwhelmed it’s stopped accepting them online.
The Al-Shaltoni family are one of thousands hoping to own their first home.
“It’s very stressful, it’s a challenging process,” says Tameem Al-Shaltoni.
Tameem and his wife Rana applied for a mortgage with six different banks – three never even bothered to respond.
“When you contact a bank you expect a response with some sort of reasonable time frame, but if it’s not there it’s quite disappointing,” Tameem says.
They applied with KiwiBank three weeks ago and the long wait for a reply meant they were cutting it close to the Reserve Bank’s March 1 deadline – where buyers will be required to stump up 20 percent deposits.
READ MORE VIA NEWSHUB
