A Moneybren tool

NZ BORROWING POWER CALCULATOR

How much can you actually borrow in New Zealand under the Reserve Bank’s DTI and deposit rules — and what’s really holding you back, your income or your deposit?

Your numbers

$/yr
Before tax, all borrowers combined.
$
Car loans, personal loans, and credit card limits (banks count the limit, not the balance).
$
% pa
Banks stress-test your servicing at a rate well above today’s — usually 7–9%.
You could buy up to about
$0

Where the limit comes from

Flip it: the house you want

$
The rules behind this. Since 1 July 2024 the Reserve Bank caps most lending at a debt-to-income ratio of 6× gross income for owner-occupiers and 7× for investors (total debt, including your existing loans and credit card limits). LVR rules separately require roughly a 20% deposit for owner-occupiers and 30% for investors. Banks can exceed the DTI cap for a small share of lending, and their own servicing tests — run at inflated test rates against your actual spending — are usually the tighter constraint. Treat this as the ceiling, not a pre-approval; a broker can tell you where you’d actually land.

How to use this calculator

Enter your household income, existing debts, deposit, and buyer type. The calculator applies the RBNZ’s DTI cap and deposit rules, shows which one limits you, and sanity-checks the repayments at a stress-test rate.

Then flip it: enter the price of the house you actually want, and see the income and deposit it demands.

This is a tool only, and none of the information it produces is financial advice. Its accuracy is not guaranteed. Always check your own figures and get advice from your own financial professionals before making decisions.

A worked example

Say your household brings in $120,000 a year between you.

You might assume the bank will lend you whatever the current 4.65% rate says you can afford. It won’t. Banks don’t test you at today’s rate – they test you at a much higher “stress” rate, often around 7-8%, to make sure you’d still cope if rates climbed.

So your real borrowing power is lower than the sticker rate suggests. The calculator uses your income and expenses to estimate what a bank would actually lend, not the rosy number.

Put your income and outgoings in above to see your realistic ceiling.

What most people get wrong about borrowing power

The biggest shock is the stress test. You could be comfortably affording a loan at 4.65% in real life, but if the bank tests you at 8% and the numbers don’t stack up, they won’t lend it. That’s why people get “declined” for loans they feel they can clearly afford.

The second thing that quietly wrecks borrowing power: your existing debts and limits. A $10,000 credit card limit hurts you even if you pay it off every month, because the bank assumes you could max it out tomorrow. Car loans, buy-now-pay-later, personal loans – all of it drags your number down.

Want to borrow more? Before you apply, kill the consumer debt and cut those credit card limits you’re not using. It can lift your borrowing power more than a pay rise would.

This calculator and page are general information only and not financial advice. Everyone’s circumstances will vary – always do your own research and consult your own financial professionals before making decisions.