December 2019's Property Gazette

Merry Christmas from the Team and Advanced Mortgage Solutions.

As the festive season arrives, we’d like to take a moment to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year. Our office will be closed from 24th December until 13th January, making it vital that you contact us quickly if you are needing pre-approvals before the end of the year.

The growth within the property market has been keeping our team super busy, making lender turn-around times slow. This means factoring in a minimum of 15 working days for any new financing applications with our team.

LVR Restrictions Remain – But We Can Help!

The Reserve Bank has kept the loan to value ratios at no more than 20 percent of residential borrowers to have less than a 20% deposit, and no more than 5 percent of investment borrowers to have less than a 30% deposit.

If you thought owning an investment property is out of reach – chat with us today! We do have access to a stand-alone 20% investment property option, and we’d love to help you obtain it.

Monthly Team Member Focus: Scott Miller

Having been a long-term property investor both in NZ and overseas, as well as having a strong background in logistics, management and finance, Scott understands the needs of both residential and investment property owners.

With the highest score ever achieved of the New Zealand Mortgage Broker Association’s entry exams under his belt, Scott is well placed to help both the first-time borrower and property investor achieve their ownership dreams.

Since forming Advanced Mortgage Solutions in 2008, his company has gone from strength to strength and is happy to chat with both new and returning clients about their lending needs, including new loans, refinancing, loan restructuring and other lending products.

Give Scott a call to arrange a time to chat about your lending requirements or to ask for advice on organising your property investment portfolio today.

Workers should have redundancy insurance

The Productivity Commission suggested last month that the our government should look at an unemployment insurance scheme and add new benefits to help support people who lose their jobs due to redundancy.

In the report they stated "There is a case to improve income security for displaced workers with income smoothing policies that cushion the financial shock of job loss,"

Did you know?

"If you lose your job, you can apply to go straight onto the unemployment benefit [that's] if you're eligible - a number of people won't be eligible for the unemployment benefit, because it's income tested and if you have a partner their income is factored in as well as the person applying.

Currently if you are made redundant and your employment agreement has redundancy provision included you receive a lump sum pay out. This is designed to cushion the blow of your job loss and assist you to stay on your feet financially.

This is a one size fits all approach that is out dated the commission said.

The commission raised the idea of creating individual redundancy accounts - where workers contribute to a KiwiSaver-type of arrangement or ACC, for which the money is collected from contributions by either the worker, the firm, or both. The amount then paid out if the worker was made redundant would be based on the person's salary prior to being unemployed - with the ACC system, this is set at 80 percent.

(As I write this article there are no specific plans to implement such a scheme).

Did you know?

Cover for redundancy has been available for many years from personal insurers, a good “Mortgage Protection” policy can include a redundancy benefit in the event of job loss.

For most companies you have an option to purchase a “Redundancy Cover Option” which will provide for up to 6 months of mortgage repayment being paid on your behalf in the event that you are made involuntarily redundant by your employer (up to certain limits).

Exclusions to the benefit are clearly spelt out for example if you are aware of any potential redundancies, restructuring, or sale of the assets or shares in your company (whether formally notified or not) redundancy may not be available.

Questions:

• Do you think anyone can consider their job “safe” now days?
• If you are put off how long could it take to get employment?
• Consider how long could you survive without an income while you are looking for a new job, how would you pay the mortgage or your rent for the home you live in.

If you’d like to know more or would if you would like to see how insurance cover would best suit you and your circumstances feel free to contact us.