← All 54 HLF Pulse Datasets • Category: First-home buyers
First-home buyers using under 20% deposit (>80% LVR)
Ticker:
fhb-low-deposit • Observation Period: September 2026 (Period End: 2026-09-30) • Last Checked: 10 November 2026 • Creator: Andy PalliserAlso known as: High-LVR (>80% LVR) first-home buyer share / Low-deposit FHB mortgage share
In September 2026, 50.3% of first-home mortgages approved across New Zealand (1,342 of 2,667 loans, or $850m in lending) were written at an LVR above 80% (corresponding to under a 20% deposit, derived by HLF from RBNZ Table C31), up from 46.0% a year earlier.
Official dataRBNZ Table C31 (September 2026): 1,342 high-LVR (>80% LVR) FHB borrowers ($850m) out of 2,667 total FHB borrowers ($1,530m).
HLF calculation
1,342 ÷ 2,667 = 50.3% (Lending: $850m ÷ $1,530m = 55.6%)HLF interpretationHLF market context (not measured in C31): RBNZ Table C31 reports all >80% LVR commitments as a single aggregate and does not disaggregate the underlying lending channel (such as bank low-equity speed-limit allocations, Kāinga Ora First Home Loans, or LVR-exempt new builds).
Cite as: HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory. "First-home buyers using under 20% deposit (>80% LVR)," September 2026. Derived by HLF from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31. https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/fhb-low-deposit/ (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 | First-home buyers using under 20% deposit (>80% LVR) |
|---|---|
| Ticker | fhb-low-deposit |
| Also known as | High-LVR (>80% LVR) first-home buyer share / Low-deposit FHB mortgage share |
| 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.BC1, LVRN.MMB2.AC1, LVRN.MMB1.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 percentage of firm residential mortgage commitments to New Zealand first-home buyers where the Loan-to-Value Ratio (LVR) exceeds 80% (corresponding to under a 20% deposit), measured by borrower count alongside officially reported >80% LVR dollar lending. |
| Methodology | Compiled from monthly registered bank returns under RBNZ Table C31. First-home buyers are defined by lending banks as borrowers purchasing a residential property to occupy as a first home. Dollar values in Table C31 are published by RBNZ rounded to the nearest $1 million. |
| Current value | 50.3% (1,342 of 2,667 loans) |
| Comparison / Prior period | September 2025 (46.0%) • +4.3 percentage points YoY |
| Official data | RBNZ Table C31 (September 2026): 1,342 high-LVR (>80% LVR) FHB borrowers ($850m) out of 2,667 total FHB borrowers ($1,530m). |
| HLF calculation | 1,342 ÷ 2,667 = 50.3% (Lending: $850m ÷ $1,530m = 55.6%)Formula: (High-LVR FHB Borrowers [LVRN.MMB2.BC1] ÷ Total FHB Borrowers [LVRN.MMB2.AC1]) × 100 |
| HLF interpretation | HLF market context (not measured in C31): RBNZ Table C31 reports all >80% LVR commitments as a single aggregate and does not disaggregate the underlying lending channel (such as bank low-equity speed-limit allocations, Kāinga Ora First Home Loans, or LVR-exempt new builds). |
| HLF derived | Yes (HLF-derived share & HLF-calculated comparison (from officially reported RBNZ loan counts & dollar values)) |
| Cite as | HLF Pulse, Home Loan Factory. "First-home buyers using under 20% deposit (>80% LVR)," September 2026. Derived by HLF from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31. https://pulse-data.homeloanfactory.co.nz/fhb-low-deposit/ (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) |
| Historical data | Available from August 2014 (146 monthly observations) |
Historical & Cohort Breakdown (Available from August 2014 (146 monthly observations))
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 50.3% |
| Aug 2026 | 50.5% |
| Jul 2026 | 49.2% |
| Jun 2026 | 50.2% |
| May 2026 | 48.0% |
| Apr 2026 | 46.2% |
| Mar 2026 | 45.3% |
| Feb 2026 | 46.0% |
| Jan 2026 | 51.8% |
| Dec 2025 | 41.7% |
| Nov 2025 | 44.8% |
| Oct 2025 | 44.6% |
| Sep 2025 | 46.0% |
Questions This Data Helps Answer
- How many first-home buyers have less than a 20% deposit in New Zealand?
- Is a 20% deposit actually typical for NZ first-home buyers?
- How common are low-deposit mortgages in New Zealand?
- What percentage of first-home buyers borrow with less than a 20% deposit?
- Are low-deposit first-home loans becoming more common?
Source & Tool Verification Chain
1. Official Source & SeriesReserve Bank of New Zealand Table C31
Series:
LVRN.MMB2.BC1, LVRN.MMB2.AC1, LVRN.MMB1.BC12. HLF Transformation
Yes
(High-LVR FHB Borrowers [LVRN.MMB2.BC1] ÷ Total FHB Borrowers [LVRN.MMB2.AC1]) × 1004. Interactive CalculatorKāinga Ora First Home Loan & LMI Estimator
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.
- Explicit derivation labels & real vs. nominal growth: Derived statistics (percentages, averages, rolling sums, and cohort comparisons) are identified as HLF-derived. Long-term 5-year and 10-year series (such as KiwiSaver balances, contributions, and weekly rents) 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/or the specific/{ticker}/record URL.