BNZ is Canstar’s Bank of the Year Home Loans 2024

Mortgage rates are sitting at 15-year highs, so it’s imperative to compare home loan lenders. Whether you’re a first home buyer, a property investor, or a homeowner looking to refinance, you can potentially save thousands of dollars in interest by securing the best value mortgage.

And to help Kiwi property purchasers choose the right home loans, each year Canstar’s expert research panel reviews all the main mortgage products in the market to find those that deliver consumers Outstanding Value, and to reward the best lender with our prestigious Bank of the Year | Home Loans Award.

Bank of the Year | Home Loans: BNZ

Congratulations to BNZ, the winner of this year’s Bank of the Year | Home Loans Award. The award recognises the lender that not only offers mortgage products that combine the best features with the lowest costs, but also delivers on great customer service.

When awarding the BNZ our top home loans accolade, our research team noted that the BNZ offers great value fixed-term mortgage products. Indeed, the BNZ earns 5-Star Outstanding Value Home Loans ratings across both our Investment and Residential lending categories.

However, it was the great feedback from BNZ mortgage holders recorded in the Customer Satisfaction section of our ratings methodology that secured the win for the bank.

In addition to standard fixed-rate and floating mortgages, BNZ also offers :

• Standard/Fly Buys Home Loan: provides the chance to earn up to 1000 Flybuys per year as you pay off your mortgage
• TotalMoney/Offset Home Loan (floating rate): save on interest payments by offsetting cash balances you have in up to 50 connected accounts against your mortgage
• Rapid Repay / Revolving Credit (floating rate): a line of credit mortgage that, like an offset account, allows you to use your cashflow to minimise interest costs

What is Canstar’s Bank of the Year | Home Loans Award?

For this years award, our team researched 59 mortgage products from the following lenders:

Mortgages across five different profiles were analysed:

• Residential mortgages: Fixed, Floating & Line of Credit
• Investment mortgages: Fixed & Floating

Each home loan reviewed was awarded points for the array of features it offers. However the most important factor considered by our awards panel was the mortgage product’s overall cost.

As well as deciding the winner of Canstar’s Bank of the Year | Home Loans Award, the research is also the basis for our Outstanding Value Home Loan Star Ratings and Outstanding Value Home Lender Awards.

These reward the mortgage providers that excel in specific lending profiles. So, for example, if you want to know which provider offers the best value residential fixed rates, or outstanding value floating investment mortgages, you can narrow your search to just those fields.

Each year, when comparing mortgages and interest rates, our panel also adjusts its research methodology to match market conditions.

For the second year in a row, our panel attributed more weight to shorter term loans, between 12 and 24 months. This was a further response to the shift in home owner borrowing patterns. Now that the peak of the mortgage rate cycle has passed, more borrowers are choosing to fix for shorter terms, in the hope they’ll be able to soon refix at a lower rate.

In the market for a home loan? Canstar can help!

If you’re considering buying a property, Canstar can help make the process a little easier. In addition to our rankings and awards for Outstanding Value Home Loans, our free and easy-to-use comparison tool covers all the major players in the home loan market.

Not only does it help you quickly and easily find the products with the lowest rates, it also shows which lenders and mortgages have earned our prestigious Star Ratings, awarded on the basis of our expert analysis. For our Outstanding Value Home Loan Star Ratings click here, or to compare rates hit this button:

Compare home loan rates for free with Canstar!

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.