Rates are finally drifting down—and the numbers are a game changer. We take a real $700k mortgage, drop the rate from 7% to 4.49%, and show how repayments tumble from about $4,657 to $3,543 a month. That’s roughly $1,200 back in your pocket every month, or around $324 a week. The big question becomes strategic: do you take the cash flow win, or keep your repayments the same and attack your principal to cut years off your term?
We walk through both paths with live-style modelling and clear, simple math. If you’ve adapted to higher repayments, holding them steady at the lower rate can wipe about 11 years off a 30-year loan. If rates ease further—potentially towards 3.5%—and you maintain those higher repayments, you compound the effect and shave off even more years. We also get tactical on fixed-rate break decisions: when a $15k break fee can be outweighed by $18k in savings, how OCR timing can shift your fee if you wait, and why lender quotes usually expire by 4 p.m. the same day. No fluff—just practical steps to refix, refinance, or split portions so you can balance certainty, flexibility, and speed of payoff.
Along the way, we talk through paying break fees upfront versus capitalising them, stress-test whether adding fees to the loan still leaves you better off, and outline how an adviser can map your options across banks and terms. Whether you need breathing room in your budget or you’re ready to crush the mortgage faster, a falling-rate environment gives you leverage—if you act on it with a plan. If you’ve got questions, ideas for future topics, or want tailored guidance, reach out. Subscribe, share with someone juggling a refix, and leave a quick review to help more Kiwis turn rate drops into real gains.

Send us a text

Support the show

Buy your first home in NZ Weekly Webinars

You thought it's not possible or the dream is too far away? Come to my webinar and I will show you, you are much closer to your dream, than you think you are!

Join Here - https://bit.ly/4m9SL72