First home buyers accounted for 24% of new mortgages issued in the second half of last year

Approximately 300,000 New Zealand households have more than one mortgage, according to the latest retail banking data from the New Zealand Banking Association (NZBA).

The figures show there were 1.1 million bank customers with 1.4 million residential mortgages between them at the end of last year, which means 300,000 (27%) of those customers had more than one mortgage.

The average mortgage size was $345,692, up 5.0% compared to the end of June last year.

There were 70,811 new mortgages issued in the six months to the end of December, up 17.5% compared to the first half of last year.

Almost a quarter (24.4%) of the new mortgages issued in the second half of last year were to first home buyers.

The average value of all new mortgages issued in the second half of 2025 was $392,519, down by 3.0% compared to the first half of the year. The average size of the mortgages taken out by first home buyers was $524,850, up 3.4% compared to the first half of the year.

Of the 1.4 million mortgages in place at the end of 2025, 1.4% (19,600) were behind on their repayments, while 42.9% (600,600) were ahead, with 6158 customers being granted hardship status in the second half of last year.

There were 2,150,000 bank customers with an active credit card at the end of last year, down 0.4% from the first half of the year.

The average monthly credit card spend was $2287, up 10.3% on the first half of the year, and 68% of cards had their balances paid in full without incurring interest charges, up 0.9% compared to the first half of the year.

On the other side of the ledger, bank customers had $114 billion held in savings accounts, with an average balance of $16,493 at the end of December, up 6.5% compared to the end of June.

Another $195 billion was held in term deposits, with an average balance of $113,385 at the end of December, up 5.2% compared to the end of June.