Nathan Lewis - Mortgage A to Z

11/11/2026

A mortgage holiday. Sounds lovely, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, there's no beach involved, and your interest doesn't take the time off with you.

A mortgage repayment holiday allows eligible borrowers to temporarily pause their repayments, usually when they're experiencing financial pressure.

But here's the important bit.

The interest generally keeps accumulating while you're not making repayments.

So while it can give you some much-needed breathing room in the short term, it can also mean paying more interest over the life of your mortgage.

Does that make it a bad option? Not necessarily.

Sometimes having that breathing room is exactly what someone needs.

But it's worth understanding the longer-term cost and whether there are other options available before making a decision.

Because the last thing you need when money is already tight is an unpleasant surprise further down the track.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

08/11/2026

Offset accounts and revolving credit can both reduce the interest you pay, if used properly.

The main difference is how they work day to day.

With an offset account, money sitting across your linked accounts can still reduce the balance you’re effectively paying interest on.
With revolving credit, you generally need to keep the money in that account for it to have the same effect.

That can make offset a bit easier for people who use multiple bank accounts.

Fees and repayment terms can also differ. Offset loans are generally principal and interest, while revolving credit can sometimes be interest-only.

That means revolving credit can work really well for the right person, but if you’re not deliberately paying it down, it can also be very easy to make less progress than you expected.

Neither option is automatically better.

It comes down to how you manage your money and which structure actually suits you.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

05/11/2026

If your property has increased in value while you’ve also been paying down the mortgage, you may now have more equity than you realise.

Which is nice. Particularly when your house appears to have been quietly building wealth while you were busy going to work every day.

Depending on your situation, that equity may potentially help if you’re looking at things like renovating, purchasing another property or making another financial move.

If you’ve owned your home for a while and have no idea what your current equity position looks like, give me a call, and we can run through it.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

04/11/2026

“Maybe we should just go unconditional to make our offer stronger.”

Possibly.

But “unconditional” isn’t mortgage language for “really keen”.

It means you’re making the offer without conditions that might otherwise give you time to sort things like finance and other due diligence.

So before removing conditions because you’ve already mentally moved the couch into the living room, make sure you actually understand what you’re committing to.

Talk to your lawyer.

Make sure the finance side has been properly checked.

And make sure you’re comfortable with the property itself.

A stronger offer is great. A stronger offer that you can actually follow through on is slightly better.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

01/11/2026

A mortgage is a big commitment, so being nervous about taking that leap is understandable.

But we can’t live our lives in fear and let ourselves be ruled by worst-case “what if?” scenarios. None of us would ever achieve anything if we did that.

That doesn’t mean you should rush out and buy a house just because you can.

It means understanding the numbers, what you can comfortably afford and how the mortgage fits into your longer-term financial goals.

There will always be factors we can’t control. The important part is having a plan that makes sense to you despite them.

Sometimes we have to take a calculated risk to achieve our goals.

If you’re in a position to buy but something is holding you back, get in touch, and we can work through the numbers properly.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

29/10/2026

“I’ll start paying extra off the mortgage when I earn more.”

Sounds reasonable.

Unfortunately, Future You already has quite a workload.

They’re going to earn more, save more, invest more, exercise more and apparently start meal prepping on Sundays.

If you have some room in your budget now, even looking at relatively small changes to how you repay or structure your mortgage can be worthwhile.

If paying your mortgage down sooner is one of your goals, we can look at what options you actually have.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

28/10/2026

Buying a house with a mate can be a pretty good idea.

You combine your resources, split the costs, and suddenly buying may look a lot more achievable.

Excellent. Just remember you're not splitting a Netflix subscription.

Before buying together, you need to understand how the lending will work, what each person is contributing and what happens if one of you eventually wants out.

Because “we’ll figure that out later” is generally more fun when deciding where to grab a feed. Less so with a house.

If you're thinking about buying with a close mate, I can help you work through the lending side before anyone starts claiming the bigger bedroom.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

23/10/2026

22/10/2026

“We’ll just renovate it.” Fair enough.

Just remember that your $20,000 renovation budget has absolutely no idea that you’ve also decided you want new flooring, a new kitchen and “while we’re at it, we may as well do the bathroom.”

If you're buying a property that needs work, think about more than whether you can afford the purchase itself.

How much cash will you have left afterwards?

What work actually needs doing?

And if you're expecting to borrow additional money for the renovations, have you checked whether that's actually possible?

Buying the ugly house and making it beautiful can be a great plan.

Just make sure the numbers have also been invited to the renovation.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz

21/10/2026

Buying a house with your partner is exciting. Romantic stuff.

But before you start arguing over kitchen benchtops, it’s worth understanding what buying together actually looks like financially.

Both incomes, debts, expenses and financial commitments can form part of the lending picture, so one person's situation can affect what you're able to do together.

Work out the boring mortgage stuff first.

Then you can get back to the important argument about whether you really need the couch from Restoration Hardware.

Nathan
📞 029 776 6076
🌐 maz.co.nz