Kiwis pay off home loan mortgage debt faster using lockdown cash

Some home loan borrowers paid extra off their mortgage during lockdown. Photo / Michael Craig

While nearly 60,000 borrowers have opted to defer payments on their home loan or other consumer debt there's been a surprising reaction from other home loan borrowers.

Some borrowers have used their spare lockdown cash to pay extra off their mortgage potentially shortening the time it will take to pay off the debt.

More than $400 million extra was paid off mortgages by customers of Westpac which is the lender for nearly one in five Kiwi home loans.

In February around 65 per cent of its customers were ahead on their home loan payments.

But by the end of June that had jumped to 66 per cent and the median amount they were ahead by rose from $8693 to $9521.

Gina Dellabarca, general manager of consumer banking and wealth at Westpac, said the data showed different households had been affected in different ways.

"Covid-19 has caused real financial difficulty for some of our home loan customers through no fault of their own.

"However, this data shows another group of New Zealanders were not affected to the same degree, and together managed to put millions of dollars more towards their mortgages as spending opportunities disappeared during lockdown."

Dellabarca also put the increase in savings down to a heightened sense of uncertainty.

Westpac allows its customers to pay up to 20 per cent extra off home loans, even those on a fixed term, without a financial penalty.

Borrowers are then able to redraw that money if they need to.

Dellabarca said paying off a mortgage faster gave customers flexibility if they ran into financial difficulty and also saves them more in the long run in reduced interest payments.

Mortgages

"It means they can decrease repayments and use the financial buffer they've built themselves should they need it."

She said anyone re-fixing their mortgage should consider keeping their future repayments at the same level.

Dellabarca said Covid-19 had changed the financial outlook for almost all of its customers.

"For some people their income has dropped and they may have requested assistance through our mortgage deferral scheme while others have reduced their spending simply through concerns over the level of current uncertainty.

"For others, they remain on the same level of income and appear to be spending at similar levels at the same time interest rates have been dropping."

Dellabarca said around 17 per cent of its customers on a mortgage deferral had now restarted payments.

"We encourage customers on mortgage or personal loan deferrals to talk to us if they no longer require this support so they can recommence payments and minimise the effect of the deferral on their future payments."