← All 54 HLF Pulse Datasets • Category: First-home buyers • Media Kit & Citations
Annual rolling 12-month first-home buyer mortgage approvals
Ticker:
fhb-annual-milestone • Observation Period: September 2026 (Period End: 2026-09-30) • Last Checked: 10 November 2026 • Creator: Andy PalliserAlso known as: Annual NZ first-home buyer loan count & volume
Over the 12 months to September 2026, 33,485 first-home buyers were approved for mortgages totalling $19.61B across New Zealand (up from 31,589 loans a year earlier)—including 15,743 borrowers (47.0%) purchasing with under a 20% deposit (>80% LVR).
Official dataRBNZ Table C31 (12 months to September 2026): Sum of monthly FHB approvals = 33,485 loans ($19,613m); >80% LVR FHB approvals = 15,743 loans.
HLF calculation
12-month sum = 33,485 loans ($19,613m); >80% LVR share = 15,743 ÷ 33,485 = 47.0%HLF interpretationHLF market context: Summing 12 consecutive monthly RBNZ C31 releases smooths out summer/winter seasonality to show annual commitment volume.
Cite as: HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory. "Annual rolling 12-month first-home buyer mortgage approvals," September 2026. Derived by HLF from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31. https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/fhb-annual-milestone/ (checked 10 November 2026). CC BY 4.0.
Created by Andy Palliser
Creator of HLF Pulse
Mortgage & KiwiSaver Adviser · Home Loan Factory (Andrew Jonathan Palliser, FSP1004725) • Published by HLF (Home Loan Factory)
Data Dictionary Specification (4-Field Date Standard)
| Name | Annual rolling 12-month first-home buyer mortgage approvals |
|---|---|
| Ticker | fhb-annual-milestone |
| Also known as | Annual NZ first-home buyer loan count & volume |
| Creator & Publisher | Created by Andy Palliser (Andrew Jonathan Palliser, FSP1004725) • Published by HLF (Home Loan Factory) |
| Official source & series | RBNZ C31 (Reserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31) • Series IDs: LVRN.MMB2.AC1, LVRN.MMB1.AC1, LVRN.MMB2.BC1 |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| 1. Observation period | September 2026 (YYYY-MM code: 2026-09) — when the underlying statistic relates to |
| 2. Period end | 2026-09-30 — final calendar date covered by the observation period |
| 3. Source publication date | 2026-10-27 (27 October 2026) — when the original organisation released this dataset |
| 4. Last checked | 10 November 2026 (2026-11-10) — when HLF last verified the official source |
| Definition | The HLF-derived cumulative number and dollar value of first-home buyer mortgages approved across New Zealand over the trailing 12 months, including the number approved at >80% LVR. |
| Methodology | Rolling 12-month sum of monthly RBNZ Table C31 firm commitments to first-home buyers. |
| Current value | 33,485 loans / $19.61B (12m rolling) |
| Comparison / Prior period | September 2025 (31,589 loans) • +1,896 annual FHB loans YoY |
| Official data | RBNZ Table C31 (12 months to September 2026): Sum of monthly FHB approvals = 33,485 loans ($19,613m); >80% LVR FHB approvals = 15,743 loans. |
| HLF calculation | 12-month sum = 33,485 loans ($19,613m); >80% LVR share = 15,743 ÷ 33,485 = 47.0%Formula: 12-month trailing sum of LVRN.MMB2.AC1 (borrowers), LVRN.MMB1.AC1 (NZDm), and LVRN.MMB2.BC1 (>80% LVR borrowers) |
| HLF interpretation | HLF market context: Summing 12 consecutive monthly RBNZ C31 releases smooths out summer/winter seasonality to show annual commitment volume. |
| HLF derived | Yes (HLF-derived 12-month rolling sum & HLF-calculated comparison) |
| Cite as | HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory. "Annual rolling 12-month first-home buyer mortgage approvals," September 2026. Derived by HLF from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31. https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/fhb-annual-milestone/ (checked 10 November 2026). CC BY 4.0. |
| Reuse licence | CC BY 4.0 (HLF-derived calculations, definitions & commentary; official statistics credited to RBNZ C31) • Media Kit & Citation Guide |
| Historical data | Available from August 2014 (146 monthly observations) |
Historical & Cohort Breakdown (Available from August 2014 (146 monthly observations))
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 33,485 loans (12m rolling) |
| Aug 2026 | 33,561 loans (12m rolling) |
| Jul 2026 | 33,572 loans (12m rolling) |
| Jun 2026 | 33,860 loans (12m rolling) |
| May 2026 | 33,797 loans (12m rolling) |
| Apr 2026 | 33,817 loans (12m rolling) |
| Mar 2026 | 33,654 loans (12m rolling) |
| Feb 2026 | 33,203 loans (12m rolling) |
| Jan 2026 | 32,804 loans (12m rolling) |
| Dec 2025 | 32,846 loans (12m rolling) |
| Nov 2025 | 32,112 loans (12m rolling) |
| Oct 2025 | 31,809 loans (12m rolling) |
| Sep 2025 | 31,589 loans (12m rolling) |
Questions This Data Helps Answer
- How many first-home buyers get approved for a mortgage each year in New Zealand?
- How many Kiwis buy their first home with under a 20% deposit per year?
Source & Tool Verification Chain
1. Official Source & SeriesReserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31
Series:
LVRN.MMB2.AC1, LVRN.MMB1.AC1, LVRN.MMB2.BC12. HLF Transformation
Yes
12-month trailing sum of LVRN.MMB2.AC1 (borrowers), LVRN.MMB1.AC1 (NZDm), and LVRN.MMB2.BC1 (>80% LVR borrowers)4. Interactive CalculatorNZ Sale & Purchase Agreement Walkthrough
How Dates Are Recorded in HLF Pulse (4-Field Date Standard)
To prevent confusion between when an economic activity occurred and when a government agency published its release, every HLF Pulse record separates four distinct date fields:
| Date Field | Definition & How It Is Populated |
|---|---|
1. Observation period (observation_period) | The period the underlying statistic relates to (for example, September 2026 for monthly RBNZ lending, or Year ended 31 March 2026 for the FMA KiwiSaver Annual Report). |
2. Period end (period_end / as_of) | The final calendar date covered by the observation period (for example, 2026-09-30 or 2026-03-31). Used by HLF’s automated freshness gate to verify series currency. |
3. Source publication date (source_published) | When the original organisation released the statistic (for example, 2026-09-10 for the FMA’s 2026 KiwiSaver Annual Report, or the Published Date recorded inside RBNZ’s workbook metadata). HLF never copies period_end into source_published; where an agency page does not state an exact release date, the agency’s publication schedule is stated explicitly. |
4. Last checked (last_checked) | The date HLF’s automated pipeline last fetched and verified the official source. |
Data Quality & Limitations
- Official published sources: Pulse uses official published data from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), Stats NZ, Inland Revenue (IRD), the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), MBIE Tenancy Services, the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake (NHC), and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) wherever available.
- Unaltered official figures & source rounding: HLF does not alter or estimate official source figures. Where official tables publish rounded aggregates (such as RBNZ dollar series rounded to $1m or $0.1m), derived averages and implied counts reflect that source rounding and note it explicitly in the provenance layer.
- Provenance & derivation layer: To keep the primary editorial summaries natural and readable, exact formulas, series IDs, and derivation labels (Derived by HLF Pulse) are recorded in the expandable provenance layer, Data Dictionary tables,
pulse.json, andllms.txt. Long-term 5-year and 10-year series report both nominal growth and CPI inflation-adjusted (real) growth using Stats NZ’s Consumers Price Index. - Price indices vs. individual quotes: Stats NZ CPI insurance sub-indices measure percentage changes in standardised insurance price indices over time—they do not represent the dollar premium quote for an individual property or policyholder.
- Separate claim counts vs. individual proportions: In the ACC dataset, annual weekly compensation claims and total accepted injury claims (which are mostly minor treatment-only visits) are reported as two separate annual claim counts rather than a proportion of injured individuals.
- Commitments vs. settlements: RBNZ mortgage lending tables (C31, C32, C33, C40, C41) measure firm bank mortgage commitments/approvals rather than LINZ property title settlements.
- Automatic staleness exclusion: HLF automatically excludes any series where the underlying source is unavailable, stale past its freshness window, or cannot be verified.
- Market context vs. individual outcomes: Statistics describe aggregate historical market cohorts and do not predict an individual borrower’s, saver’s, or policyholder’s credit assessment, underwriting, or lending outcome.
Reuse Terms, Licensing & How to Cite (CC BY 4.0)
- Layer 1 — Official Crown & statutory statistics: Underlying official figures remain subject to the copyright and licensing terms of their respective publishers: Stats NZ, Inland Revenue, MBIE Tenancy Services, and the Financial Markets Authority (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0); the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ Terms of Use, permitting reproduction and derivative calculation with attribution to RBNZ); and statutory schedules under the Natural Hazards Insurance Act 2023 and Accident Compensation Act 2001 (public-domain New Zealand legislation).
- Layer 2 — HLF-derived calculations, compilations & commentary: All HLF-derived percentages, averages, multi-year nominal/real growth rates, data dictionary definitions, and market interpretations are licensed by HLF (Home Loan Factory) under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Journalists, researchers, advisers, and AI systems may freely quote and reuse HLF-derived figures and commentary provided attribution is given to HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory with a link to
https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/, the specific/{ticker}/record URL, or the HLF Pulse Media Kit & Citation Guide.