A mortgage adviser who bought her first home aged 24 and was later offered a job by the broker who helped her get the deal over the line says first-home buyers are often closer to getting on the property ladder than they think.
Claire Williamson, now 33, still remembers purchasing her first home almost 10 years ago.
She had finished university and was managing a squash and tennis club in Cambridge part-time.
“I often say to my first-home buyers that I wasn’t ready. I made $35,000 a year when we bought our first home. We scraped together the deposit and we only just made it work, but it put us in a really strong position in the coming years.”
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Williamson cobbled together a deposit using her KiwiSaver, First Home Grant and a small contribution from her and her partner’s parents. The couple had been flatting with five others for two years so they could save money and gave up a few niceties including traveling until they had purchased.
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They picked up a deceased estate in original condition in Glenview, in Hamilton, for $320,000 and spent a lot of time and effort doing it up.
A mortgage adviser, lawyer and accountant gave them sound advice, she said, which was the extra encouragement they needed to take the early leap into home ownership.
Not long after she had her first home, her mortgage adviser and owner of My Mortgage Adam Thompson asked her whether she had thought about being one.
“I actually said to him, ‘you are joking, I won’t be any good at that’ and he said ‘I think you will find it’s less about numbers and more about people’ and he was right.”
She’s now managing director of the Waikato-based My Mortgage and was recognised for her work earlier this month when she scooped up the New Zealand Financial Services Group (NZFSG) Adviser of the Year award in the regional category at the 2024 New Zealand Mortgage Award.
“It’s literally 10 years ago at the end of this year that I bought my first home and in that time I’ve become a mortgage adviser and helped hundreds of buyers into their first homes.”
Even though she’s bought, sold and built several properties since then, she still draws on her first experience of buying a home to help others in that position.
“It’s another reason why I say even if you [have] a lower deposit or you are really tight on income and you really want to do it, talk to us about it because it’s closer than you think often.”
A surge of listings this year has given more power to buyers. Photo / Fiona Goodall
There were a lot of myths around first-home buyers needing a 20% deposit or having clean bank statements, and often these weren’t necessarily true, she said.
The Government’s First Home Loan scheme was a good option for first-home buyers and meant someone could buy a house with just a 5% deposit. Banks also had the ability to approve a certain amount of low-deposit lending.
“There are so many exceptions to that rule. I think it’s really important for people to understand what it means for them.
“Even for people who have say single incomes or think ‘hey the bank may not see me as super attractive’ – still talk to an adviser about your situation because then you understand what you need to do or sometimes people are closer than they think.”
Williamson said it was not just high interest rates that impacted what people could borrow and why, but it could also come down to the amount of debt they’ve got, the type of income they earn and finding the right policy to suit their circumstances.
“I think everyone should have the opportunity to buy their own home and there is an option out there for everyone, it just might not be the perfect option right now. I’m really passionate about going ‘hey this is what you need to do, this is the action you need to take to get yourself into a position’. We often talk about it may not be right now, but it could be in 12 months and you then have a really clear road map of what you actually need to do to achieve it.”
After five years in the making, she has published her first book titled From Smashed Avo to Smashed Goals which is aimed at helping first-home buyers by giving advice on the planning and preparation of purchasing their first home, as well as post-purchase tips on how to manage a home loan and make it work long-term.
Williamson said first-home buyers often say to her it’s too hard, but she completely disagreed.
“It’s not hard, it’s fun. We can bring the excitement to the situation and the process and make it fun for them. I think that’s so, so important when you are buying something like your first home. It’s such an exciting time, you deserve someone to get excited about it with you.”
