Tool can provide data for three periods of time
Property investment company Opes Partners has rolled out a new mortgage calculator that allows property investors and first-home buyers (FHBs) to calculate their mortgage repayments.
The calculator uses an amortisation table to figure out how much the user has to repay each week, fortnight, or month to completely pay off the principal of the loan and all of the interest.
“The best place to start when looking to purchase a property is how much the mortgage will cost you every week, fortnight, or month,” said Opes Partners managing director Andrew Nicol.
“When using the calculator, your mortgage repayment, whether it be weekly, fortnightly, or monthly, is probably what you are most interested in. It is also the most self-explanatory. It’s the amount that you're going to pay each period.
“This version of the mortgage calculator is the first version, not the forever version, and we intend to clearly show the cost of a mortgage more clearly in the future.”
Read more: ANZ fixed mortgage rates surge
The launch of the new mortgage calculator coincides with the sharp increase in Consumers Price Index (CPI), compelling lenders to increase their mortgage and term deposit rates.
In its CPI report released last month, Statistics New Zealand (Stats NZ) indicated that inflation skyrocketed to its highest level in over 10 years, with the annual figure reaching a record of 4.9% at the end of the September quarter.
Since then, wholesale swap rates have risen by around +30 bps. ANZ, for example, pushed through a +45 bps increase, and it no longer offers any mortgage rates below 3%, with its four- and five-year fixed rates now above 5%, according to Interest.co.nz.
During the same month, BNZ announced that customers cannot borrow more than six times their income anymore when they apply for a home loan through a broker, making it the first mainstream bank to formally adopt a debt-to-income ratio for home lending.
