Is it ever 'too late' to jump on the home ownership ladder?
Sunday, 8 February 2026
Senior business reporter Rob Stock answers your money questions. Got a question for Sunday magazine? Email it to sundaymagazine@stuff.co.nz
QUESTION: Is it ever 'too late' to jump on the home ownership ladder?
ANSWER: Yes, but it is perhaps much later than you think.
There is a moment in many lives when a bank will simply not lend the amount a person needs to buy the place they have their eye on.
But, again, that moment may not be as early as you suspect.
Or as Ed Mcknight, economist from property investment company Opes, says: “A lot of Kiwis think 50 is too late. No. It’s not. 50 is not too late, but it depends on your circumstances.”
Home ownership remains the bedrock of a decent retirement, and maddeningly, home ownership rates are falling. That’s a symptom of an abject failure to build affordable homes.
People have been buying their first homes later in life, precisely because it is harder to do than when I bought my first place in my 20s- a tiny little, modern two-bed brick semi-detached place in the outskirts of Cambridge. Actual, English Cambridge, not Waikato Cambridge.
But people are living, and working later in life, and banks will lend to people with mortgage repayment terms that go to age 70, depending on the work they do, says McKnight.
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In fact, New Zealand passed a dismal milestone last year, when the average age at which people taking out new home loans were scheduled to pay them off passed 65.
Really, that’s not unsurprising as the average age of first home buyers has ticked over 36. Getting on the property ladder in your 40s isn’t a long way past that.
Unpalatable as the idea of not paying off a home loan until 70 is, that is only the final end date at the establishment of the mortgage. Borrowers may well decide they go harder on repayments to polish it off early.
Or they may have their eye on their KiwiSaver, and at age 65, decide to use some to pay off the rump of the loan.
McKnight says older people seeking a first-time mortgage are well-advised to seek the help of a mortgage advisor.
Advisers can help people work out their possible buying/borrowing scenarios, and put their best foot forward with the bank.
The bank’s mind will be on the strategy the borrower intends to use to clear the mortgage. The term for this is the “exit strategy”.
People’s exit strategy may vary. Cases may include people planning to downsize, or to move to a cheaper suburb, or town, when they finally stop working. Similarly, buying strategies will vary. Some people may decide to buy in a cheaper area, but carry on renting themselves, letting out their retirement home until they need it.
McKnight thinks even people in their 50s aren’t past first home-ownership, but they would need decent, stable incomes the bank thinks they can maintain until they are 70, and be buying a relatively modest place.
Each case would turn on the individual circumstances, he says.
Inheritances and other forms of sudden cash injections may also make it possible for some in their 60s to buy first homes, but those circumstances are rarer.
But, there are risks in borrowing, and arguably some are larger for older people.
House prices can fall as well as rise. Your health may flag. People can lose their jobs, and in our ageist society, older workers made redundant may struggle more than younger ones to find new jobs paying the same as the ones they lost.