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Weathering the storm, readying to rise

The New Zealand mortgage industry is re-emerging from a subdued cycle, balancing lower rates, non-bank growth and technology shifts to rebuild confidence and steady long-term growth

Jenny Campbell

Finsure

Industry experts

Andrew Chambers

Newpark

Guy Carter

Your Mortgage Team

Dylan Ferreira

Vega

Heading up the New Zealand arm of one of Australasia’s largest mortgage adviser aggregators, Jenny Campbell is a familiar face to many in the NZ lending community. Having previously run the peak professional bodies in the financial adviser space, as well as a large, branded mortgage broker group, she brings a wealth of experience and is a relentless cheerleader for advisers and a champion of the power of ‘great advice’.

Finsure

Jenny Campbell

Andrew Chambers is the CEO of Newpark, one of New Zealand’s leading financial services groups. A visionary leader, Chambers is passionate about challenging industry norms and driving innovation to better serve advisers and clients. He founded Tella to empower everyday Kiwis with accessible, high-quality financial advice, and spearheaded the development of MyDash, Newpark’s proprietary technology platform, designed to elevate adviser performance and client outcomes. With a focus on progress and purpose, Chambers continues to lead the charge in shaping a more dynamic, transparent and client-centric mortgage and financial advice industry.

Newpark

Andrew Chambers

Guy Carter, founder and managing director of Your Mortgage Team, has a chartered accounting background and extensive property investment experience. His expertise in financial analysis and strategic planning gives him a unique edge in mortgage broking, blending technical skill with real-world investment insight. As both a qualified accountant and an active investor, Carter anticipates challenges and identifies opportunities, providing clients with tailored, comprehensive advice to meet their financial goals. Outside of work, he enjoys golf and spending time with his wife and young daughter, ensuring a balanced approach to both his professional and personal life.

Your Mortgage Team

Guy Carter

Dylan Ferreira is a partner and financial adviser at Vega and the founder and CEO of buythebook, a first-of-its-kind fintech marketplace transforming how mortgage, insurance and wealth advisers buy and sell their client portfolios. With over a decade in financial services, Ferreira combines hands-on advisory experience with a passion for innovation and technology. Through Vega, he helps clients achieve their financial goals with a professional yet personable approach, while buythebook reflects his mission to bring transparency, efficiency and fair value to the industry. Outside of work, Ferreira is driven by family, sport and building meaningful connections.

Vega

Dylan Ferreira

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Vault Plus Mortgage and Finance Consultancy

David Merison

“The market share for advisers is growing, even in the environment that we’re in now, and that’s great for the consumer… The power of really good advice is enormous”

Jenny Campbell, Finsure

After two years of grinding gears, New Zealand’s mortgage industry may finally be moving forward again. Advisers are seeing steadier pipelines, clients are talking about opportunity instead of survival, and lenders are loosening the screws on credit. It isn’t a boom – but it’s a beginning. In a period defined by hesitation, 2025 has become a reset year for New Zealand’s mortgage and financial advice sector. Across the country, advisers are learning to balance slower deal flow with smarter business practices driven by technological leaps, and to navigate a two-speed market where affordability is improving even as competition intensifies. Their collective task, as industry leaders say, is simple but urgent: get the engine started again – and keep it running smoothly into 2026. It’s a pivotal moment and one that raises questions about the future direction of the advice industry, the challenges and opportunities facing advisers, the impact of technology, and how all stakeholders – advisers, lenders and aggregators – can best adapt to serve clients well no matter what direction the economy takes. NZ Adviser TV spoke to experts in the area at a recent Executive Insights panel to hear their views.

“The more power we get as advisers and as aggregators, the more we can actually try and get some bank policy change”

Guy Carter, Your Mortgage Team

“For any adviser out there, there’s huge growth potential in doing deals in that non-bank space, both short term and long term. There’s some very competitive pricing and products out there in the market”

Andrew Chambers, Newpark

“It’s about advisers staying visible. I don’t think 2026 is going to be a boom year, but it’s going to be a lot more constructive than what we’ve seen over the last couple of years”

Dylan Ferreira, Vega

Read on

Finsure Group is one of the fastest-growing aggregators in Asia-Pacific, providing maximum value and helping advisers achieve their goals. We have achieved this success by getting to know our advisers’ needs and the nature of adviser success, and by gaining an understanding of how we can support our network members to become some of the best in the industry. In speaking with our partners in New Zealand, we identified the need for a holistic and comprehensive aggregation solution for Kiwis and have created award-winning services to bring to the table.

Find out more

In Partnership with

M&A Insights 2021

Insurance Business America uncovers the answers to brokers’ biggest questions about mergers and acquisitions, with expert insight from MarshBerry, Baldwin Risk Partners and Relation Insurance

Read on

Trevor Baldwin

Baldwin Risk Partners

Phil Trem

MarshBerry

Timothy J. Hall

Relation Insurance

Gerard Vecchio

MarshBerry

Industry experts

Mashberry

Gerard Vecchio

Relation Insurance

Timothy J. Hall

Mashberry

Phil Trem

Baldwin Risk Partner

Trevor Baldwin

M&A Insights 2021

Insurance Business America uncovers the answers to brokers’ biggest questions about mergers and acquisitions, with expert insight from MarshBerry, Baldwin Risk Partners and Relation Insurance

Read on

Trevor Baldwin

Baldwin Risk Partners

Phil Trem

MarshBerry

Timothy J. Hall

Relation Insurance

Gerard Vecchio

MarshBerry

Industry experts

Baldwin Risk Partners

Trevor Baldwin

Mashberry

Phil Trem

Relation Insurance

Timothy J. Hall

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Mashberry

Gerard Vecchio

Published 01 Dec 2025

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Getting the engine startedOne well-documented trend in the market is the distinct regional patterns, with major centres like Auckland and Wellington lagging behind other parts of the country. “It’s been a year of getting the engine started again after a couple of pretty average years, particularly in Auckland,” said Andrew Chambers, chief executive of financial services group Newpark. He was joined on the panel by Jenny Campbell, country manager New Zealand at aggregator Finsure, and two advisers – Guy Carter, founder and managing director of Your Mortgage Team, and Dylan Ferreira, partner and financial adviser at Vega. “What we see in Auckland versus the rest of the country is quite different,” said Chambers. “Auckland is such a big part of the economy that we’ve needed to see those little telltale signs of a change in direction, and we’re now seeing that coming through month on month.”

He added that advisers are performing significantly better than they were 12 months ago, with a gentle but consistent upward trend emerging despite occasional setbacks. For Campbell, the more subdued economy meant welcome rate relief but also a shift away from regulatory concerns that had loomed large in previous years. “This last half of the year, it’s all been about rates with clients. That’s what everyone wants to talk about … and that’s great news for everybody,” she said. “It’s been great for advisers to be able to move away from

that compliance and regulatory focus that so many have had over the last couple of years, and to really get back to what’s actually the critical part of our business, which is much more of the customer focus,” Campbell said. Affordability drives activityThe improvement in lending conditions on the back of consecutive rate cuts has opened up opportunities that were previously closed to many borrowers. Carter, who is based in in Queenstown, said affordability is no longer the barrier it once was. “We’ve seen a lot of growth this year compared to 2024,” he said. He emphasised that it was now much easier to borrow money, with lender stress-test rates falling from around 8–9% at the peak of the interest rate cycle to levels that are now in the mid-to-high-6% range. He pointed to the non-bank sector as a particular area of opportunity, with competitive pricing and products creating significant growth potential for advisers. His business, which focuses heavily on construction lending, had benefited from stabilising materials prices and renewed builder confidence due to falling interest rates.

“Builders are now looking to do spec builds,” Carter said. While he believes the easing cycle is nearly over, another drop at the end of the year would translate to “really attractive pricing” at the start of 2026. Ferreira, based in Auckland, characterised 2025 as a reset year. “The deals didn’t stop. They just got a little bit slower,” he said. “Pre-approval sat a little bit longer, buyers had a little bit more power, and clients were maybe a little bit more cautious with debt because there’s a little bit of hurt in the economy.” He observed an interesting split in adviser activity throughout the year, with newer advisers taking a markedly different approach to established practitioners. “We had lots of new advisers come into the industry, and they were extremely active online, trying to build their presence,” Ferreira said. “It felt like every time there was an OCR announcement, or there

was a rate announcement or a policy announcement, those guys were chasing those opportunities and trying to build their brand.” In contrast, experienced advisers maintained their existing referral relationships and client bases, tracking along steadily despite tougher market conditions. Looking ahead to 2026, Ferreira expects a more constructive environment but without the boom conditions of previous cycles. “With the OCR drops, inflation is under control, and enquiries are backing up,” he said. “It’s about advisers staying visible. I don’t think 2026 is going to be a boom year, but it’s going to be a lot more constructive than what we’ve seen over the last couple of years.”

Non-banks fill the gapsThe non-bank sector has emerged as a bright spot in the lending market, introducing products and pricing that have created new opportunities for both advisers and borrowers. Carter sees the non-bank space as one of the most significant growth areas for advisers. “We’ve seen some really good products in the market in the non-bank space,” he said. “For any adviser out there, there’s huge growth potential in doing deals in that non-bank space, both short term and long term. There’s some very competitive pricing and products out there in the market.” Non-banks still account for a very small portion of total

new lending, but Carter believes this represents an opportunity rather than a limitation, particularly as the sector evolves with new entrants and products. “I do see the non-banks really growing in this industry,” Carter said. “With the change in the non-bank space, with some lenders leaving, there’s new products coming to the market. That’s a real opportunity for advisers to jump on, and with clients who can only really use the adviser channel, there’s going to be huge growth there.” The appeal of non-bank lenders extends beyond flexible solutions and faster turnaround times. For advisers, these lenders often provide access to solutions for clients who don’t fit the traditional bank criteria, filling genuine gaps in the market where main banks have pulled back.

Finding clients remains the primary challengeA recent survey conducted by Newpark revealed that sourcing clients remains the top concern for advisers, particularly those based in Auckland. “Finding clients is still number one in terms of challenges,” Chambers said. “There’s been some hard pedalling for advisers over that period.” However, he noted the picture varies significantly by region, with different areas facing distinct challenges. Compliance requirements are still the second-biggest concern, never fully disappearing despite hopes for a lighter regulatory burden. Chambers predicts that these themes will carry over into 2026 and beyond. “It’s [about] how do we shore up those [adviser] businesses to get that growth engine going and not be distracted too much by the compliance and other bits and pieces that can slow them down.” Campbell emphasised Finsure’s holistic approach to supporting advisers beyond basic technology and lender access. “We really want to provide our members with an entire ecosystem of support,” she said. “Whether it be using our loan writers, our marketing team, our recruitment team for either staff or new advisers, we’ve got layers of support that advisers can pull in and out of as and when they need for their businesses.” The goal is to help advisers grow and scale their businesses while working smarter rather than simply processing more applications.

Competition intensifiesThe competitive environment has shifted significantly, with advisers facing pressure not just from each other but from banks’ own channels and evolving technology. “Advisers aren’t just competing with other advisers,” Ferreira said. “They’re competing with banks’ technology and client expectations. Banks are pushing harder into those proprietary channels, lifting head counts and bringing deals in-house.” At the same time, artificial intelligence is narrowing the gap between information clients can find themselves and the advice advisers can provide, raising the bar for professional service. “That value bar has moved, and that means advisers in 2025 and 2026 can’t survive on relationships alone,” Ferreira said. “They’re going to have to be sharper on their advice, their evidence, their speed, their documents and how they present deals to the bank.” Carter’s biggest frustration centres on bank turnaround times and their traffic light systems for managing application volumes. “There’s always limited scope for new-to-bank clients, high LVRs and pre-approvals,” he said. “Probably our biggest challenge is trying to explain [to clients] how a business banking turnaround time [is so long that it] won’t even get looked at for two and a half weeks.” The challenge of running a small business while maintaining client satisfaction adds another layer of complexity. “We’re not just advisers. We’re running small businesses. We’re keeping clients happy. There’s a lot of hats to wear,” Carter said. “There’s never really any simple deals. Everything looks simple on the outset, but as soon as you get stuck into it, everything involves more time, more people, [things like] trustees, more layers.”

Lender response draws mixed reviewsBank responses to current market conditions have been uneven, with some institutions performing better than others. Carter noted that credit decisions remain generally conservative, and consistency proves elusive across different assessors. “Getting consistent responses from credit and different assessors is one thing we do struggle with,” he said. Communication of policy changes also needs improvement. “Banks don’t necessarily share all the change in policies in a timely manner or actually at all,” Carter said. “If the bank does have a policy, it needs to be communicated clearly to the advisers.” Ferreira expects lenders to face pressure during the busy spring and summer period. “Are they resourcing up

enough for that spring and summer volume? Are they going to be there over the Christmas and New Year break, and how are they going to support that adviser community?” he said. While banks haven’t stopped lending, they’ve become more selective about which deals they’ll accept, Ferreira explained. “Those vanilla, easy, good deals are few and far between,” he said. “Now we’re getting those complicated ones, which is where we can add our real value.” Campbell agreed that turnaround times represent a significant problem, though she acknowledged that banks are attempting to address the issue. “I don’t think it’s so much the time. It’s the lack of parity between the adviser channel versus the direct channel,” Campbell said. “Someone can walk into a branch and get a much faster turnaround than they can through going to an adviser. It just shouldn’t be the case.” The disparity can damage advisers’ reputations, making them appear reactive rather than proactive on deals. Even so, there were some good examples of banks upping the game. Campbell praised Kiwibank for its recent market initiatives, including its fast refi product. “They’ve really looked at the market and thought, where’s a gap, where’s something special that they can do,” she said. “I want to see more of that kind of innovation.” Communication gaps extend to technical matters such as calculator updates. Campbell said aggregators typically receive changes to bank calculators only a day before they go live to the network, leaving insufficient time for analysis and integration into various CRM systems. “Some of the banks don’t even give you unlocked versions of these calculators. They just give you the same version they give the adviser, which is crazy,” Campbell said. “You’d think that they would want the deals coming out of a CRM to be using the correct calculator.” Chambers saw positives and negatives in recent lender performance. He criticised banks for being behind the eight ball on staffing levels as the market recovers. “They’re very slow on human resource when it comes to coming out of a down cycle, and that comes back and haunts them,” Chambers said. “We’ve been seeing it for a while, where we’ll have school holidays and we’ll see an impact on turnaround times. We shouldn’t really be seeing that from these big corporate units.”

Newpark is one of New Zealand’s leading financial services groups, empowering mortgage advisers with the tools, support and technology to thrive. Committed to challenging industry norms, Newpark drives innovation through platforms like MyDash, its proprietary adviser technology, and initiatives that elevate professional standards. With a strong focus on adviser success and client outcomes, Newpark fosters a collaborative community built on trust, transparency and progress. Newpark champions accessible financial advice for everyday Kiwis. Together, these efforts reflect Newpark’s mission to move the industry forward and shape a more dynamic, client-centric future.

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Market share momentum buildsThe growing market share of advisers has become a significant force in shaping lending practices and bank behaviour, with anecdotal evidence suggesting the channel now accounts for well over half of new residential lending. Carter believes this growth gives advisers and aggregators increasing leverage to drive positive change in the industry. The shift in market dynamics means banks can no longer afford to treat the adviser channel as secondary to their direct operations. Carter sees this as an opportunity to influence bank policy more effectively. “The more power we get as advisers and as aggregators, the more we can actually try and get some bank policy change,” he said. “It’s very hard to actually change and affect bank policy. As much as you can jump up and down and request things, the bigger the aggregators get, the more power they get, the more chance we’ve got to make effective change for more efficient, better outcomes for our clients.” Campbell sees the growing market share as evidence that consumers value professional advice, even in an increasingly digital environment. “The market share for advisers is growing, even in the environment that we’re in now, and that’s great for the consumer, because I do think that we keep everybody honest,” Campbell said. “The power of really good advice is enormous.” Chambers noted that banks are beginning to recognise that they cannot succeed without the adviser channel, though their mindset hasn’t fully caught up with the new reality. “This industry is a large channel now for all the banks, and it’s probably only going to get larger,” Chambers said. Despite this, he said “the mentality of the banks is somewhat akin to where it was in the early 2000s when the third party channel was a small proportion of the industry”. Technology reshapes the industryThe role of aggregators is evolving rapidly as technology advances and consumer expectations shift. Accenture has predicted that around 67% of banking work globally could be either automated or augmented by generative AI – but adoption is still in its early stages in New Zealand. Ferreira predicts that successful aggregators will be those that put advisers first, shifting from being primarily distribution and compliance hubs to genuine partners. Leveraging data and working with institutions that allow more effective data leverage is key for advisers to compete in the quickly changing environment. Potential applications for AI in the adviser business include faster diary notes, pricing intelligence, retention alerts and book-value insights. Aggregators could also provide shared infrastructure such as pre-built systems, templates, legal frameworks and workflows that reduce costs and enable operational scalability. “I think as a community we are stronger together than we are individually,” Ferreira said. “Advisers need a voice with the lenders. Advisers gain more influence with collective scale.” Risks emerge if aggregators fail to adapt properly. Banks could try to bypass the channel by building bigger proprietary teams, and advisers might abandon aggregators that don’t treat them as partners. “Aggregators will have to evolve into strategic partners of an adviser’s business, or they’ll be replaced,” Ferreira said. “The ones that stay relevant will be those that are forward-thinking and unapologetically adviser-first.” Carter sees aggregators’ ability to move quickly as a key advantage. “From a technological perspective, they’re obviously not as big of an operation as a bank, so they can actually make advancements in CRMs and technology and implement them a lot quicker,” he said. He points to recent AI tools for filling out forms and handover documentation as examples of rapid innovation. Aggregators’ role in providing training, compliance support and brand and marketing assistance remains important, particularly as it allows advisers to focus on delivering advice. Newpark has invested millions in technology over recent years in platforms such as MyDash, designed to elevate adviser performance and client outcomes, driven by the need to compete effectively with large product providers. “What have you got when you go to war against your large product providers directly? You’ve got your relationship side,” Chambers said. “I believe that we’re going back into a relationship-partner cycle, and what’s going to allow us to do that really well as an industry is good technology.” He’s particularly enthusiastic about AI’s potential to enhance adviser capabilities, citing his own experience testing a KiwiSaver product. “I’ve run the process on myself in terms of my own position around KiwiSaver and growth and what I want to achieve through AI, and I’ve got better results than I have from humans,” Chambers said. “Advisers should take that and run with it in terms of giving top-notch advice to their clients.” Chambers also sees opportunity in the coming transfer of wealth from baby boomers to millennials, which he believes the industry can capitalise on effectively. Campbell acknowledged that technology is moving at an extraordinary pace and will reshape the adviser world in the near term. “We’re going to see a lot of the vanilla deals, the really easy refi kind of stuff, all disappear directly to the banks with AI,” she said. “If [a borrower has] a nice, clean deal, and you’re pretty tech savvy, you probably will end up just having some AI-assisted capacity with your direct lender.” This reality means advisers must continually demonstrate their value and embed themselves more deeply in clients’ financial lives. “AI is just moving so fast that the older platforms just won’t be able to keep up. We have to think about how we can add value and how we can really entrench ourselves into our clients’ financial lives and make sure that we’re offering a full 360-degree view of their financial future,” Campbell said.

Channel parity remains contentiousEnsuring equal treatment between adviser and direct channels continues to be a source of tension, particularly regarding turnaround times and bank accountability. Chambers said some banks run the risk of losing trust in the adviser community by pushing the direct channel too hard, but at the same time, lenders are tempered by the reality that the third party channel has grown to represent a substantial portion of their business.

“If [banks] don’t get channel neutrality right, it’ll bite them, and they’ll see that in the future,” Chambers said. Campbell believes regulation has helped improve the situation by elevating the profession’s standing. “Tidying up our profession and making everybody qualified financial advisers has given them much more credibility in the face of the public,” she said. “We’ve got a regulatory framework and regulators that want to support this channel. They see the value of really good financial advice.” She noted that banks embracing advisers have seen their market share rise significantly, despite the unusual arrangement where advisers compete with their own product providers. With New Zealand’s limited number of lenders compared to markets like Australia, advisers don’t have the luxury of shopping deals for the highest commission, a reality Campbell believes is now widely recognised. She advocates for greater collaboration among industry groups, particularly on issues affecting the entire adviser community. “We as an industry need to be able to take our hats off every now and then and work together for the greater good,” Campbell said. “The greater good is a strong adviser community. We should be getting behind the professional bodies in the space and promoting the wonderful work that advisers do in New Zealand.” Summer plans and renewalAs the year winds down, industry leaders are planning various approaches to rest and recovery. Campbell will be staying close to home, with a poolside Christmas on her agenda. “There is a deck chair, hopefully some sunshine, and my husband needs to be making me frozen cocktails on demand,” she said. Chambers will be working through early January before taking a month off at the end of the month for a trip to Malaysia and Chengdu, China. He said, “That part of the year is always good for stepping off the bus and thinking about what’s ahead of you and how you’re going to deal with it.” Carter is heading to Nelson for a couple of weeks. He emphasised the importance of genuinely disconnecting. “It’s probably the only time of the year where lawyers, banks and all clients are on holiday, and you’re not getting thousands of emails a day,” Carter said. “The key here is actually to switch off and start thinking more strategically for the new year.” Ferreira plans to stay closer to home with his two young sons following a big overseas trip the previous year. “We’ll go see some nice beaches and just spend some quality family time together, get outside, probably do some exercise,” he said. “It’ll be a chance to reflect on the year that has been and go into the next year with a clear head.” As the industry swaps client calls for cocktails and countdowns over the summer, the pause feels well-earned. The market’s engine is ticking over again – not roaring but finding a new rhythm – and when the holidays end, lenders, aggregators and advisers alike will see how far it can take them.

2.21%

Expected annual CPI 1 year ahead

Quarter

Sep 24

2.25%

Mar 25

2.53%

Sep 25

2.13%

Dec 24

2.44%

Jun 25

Source: RBNZ Business Expectations Survey (M15), September 2025

Businesses’ inflation expectations for 1 year ahead

Source: Perceptive Pipe Dream or Possibility: Home Buying Intentions in 2025 report

46%

35%

Among borrowers securing mortgages in last 12 months

Among all borrowers

Used a mortgage adviser

Use of advisers higher among more recent borrowers

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