Best Mortgage Brokers in New Zealand 

Kip Hanna, CEO of NZHL Group in Auckland – who leads the group’s national network of franchised mortgage advisers across New Zealand – says leading advisor businesses are increasingly competing on long-term client outcomes rather than transactions. “The businesses leading the way are managing clients for life, using data to stay ahead of their needs and bringing lending, insurance and KiwiSaver (New Zealand’s workplace retirement savings scheme) into one advice experience,” he says. 

Francine Kwok, general manager of EverBright Finance in Auckland, says an experienced broker can support the client throughout their entire financial journey. “Whether the client is purchasing a first home, building a property portfolio, starting a business or transitioning into self-employment, the broker remains a consistent adviser who understands the broader picture and can adapt strategies as circumstances change,” she explains. “Clients increasingly value having one trusted adviser who can advocate for them across different stages of life, rather than being assessed solely through the lens of one institution’s structure or policy framework.” 
 

The scores moved. What matters is where they moved, and what that says about how adviser–client relationships are functioning in New Zealand. 

Across all six criteria, ratings improved from 2024 to 2026. The pattern of improvement is not uniform, though, and the gaps between criteria are more instructive than the aggregate lift. 

The biggest three-year gain belongs to being proactive and suggesting the best type of loan, up 2.09% from 9.40 to 9.60 and moving from fifth place in 2024 to second in 2026. That reflects a genuine change in what New Zealand borrowers now expect from a mortgage adviser or broker. Clients want guidance that arrives before they ask for it and a loan structure that anticipates their situation rather than responds to it. 

Respondents were candid. “Being proactive and coming to me with possibilities well in advance,” wrote one client. Another described an adviser who “often makes recommendations and suggestions we had not thought to consider” and “looks forward to the future and helps us plan.” A third reduced it to a single observation: “Recognising when it’s time to act before you do.” 

Hanna says the same dynamic is now changing adviser service models. “The future experience is real-time, personalised and increasingly predictive,” he adds. “Clients now benchmark financial services against on-demand digital experiences.” 

Advisers who moved up the rankings are almost certainly the ones who embedded proactive structuring into their standard client workflow – not as a premium service tier but as a baseline expectation.
 

Fast and easy communication rose 1.21% over three years, from 9.46 to 9.58. Personalised service improved by the same margin, finishing at 9.56. Both showed consistent year on year progress rather than a single-year spike, which points to structural improvement in how top advisers manage client contact cadence rather than a one-off effort. 

What clients described was not simply responsiveness. It was a particular quality of attention. “Super attentive, listens to your situation beyond just the numbers,” wrote one respondent. Another noted that their adviser “remembers us on a personal level; it’s not often we are talking with her, but she always remembers us.” A third described being made to feel like “the only clients she was working with.” 

Julius Capilitan, managing director and primary financial adviser at Century21 Financial in Auckland, says technology is helping advisers improve process speed, but it does not replace the central advisory task. “The current speed and delivery are good, but that is less important than actual structure advice and the overall picture of what the client wants to achieve,” he says. 

The communication that drew the most consistent praise was not speed alone. It was clarity under pressure. “You were always available whenever I had questions, and I really appreciated how you took the time to explain everything clearly and patiently,” wrote one client. “It made a big difference and gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
 

Understanding of loan needs has held first position across all three years and reached 9.76 in 2026, its highest point in the study period. The three-year gain is 0.70% – modest compared to other criteria, but this reflects a ceiling effect rather than stagnation. Advisers who consistently top the rankings have long since made needs assessment a core operational discipline, which means there is simply less room to improve from an already high base. 

What clients described, though, went well beyond loan mechanics. “What sets an adviser apart for us is their ability to understand the wider family situation, not just the loan itself,” wrote one respondent. “The best adviser is someone who understands that financial decisions for our family have to be practical, sustainable and sensitive to the realities of long-term caregiving.” 

Capilitan sees this as the gap between advisers and direct bank channels. Banks can deliver speed and product access, he says, but advisers are better placed to look holistically at the client’s purpose and connect those needs with the wider market. The differentiator is the depth of context an adviser carries into the conversation before the client has to explain themselves again. 
 

Value for money and simplifying the lender search process both eased slightly from their 2025 peaks. Value for money finished at 9.51 in 2026, down from 9.53 in 2025, though still up 1.50% from 2024. Simplifying lender search closed at 9.38, fractionally below its 2025 rating of 9.39, despite posting the second-largest three-year gain at 2.01%. 

Both dips coincide with a market environment where lender policy complexity increased, and rate movement created repricing pressure across the advisory pipeline. Hanna says advisers are gaining ground where they use systems to identify client needs earlier. “The biggest gains are coming from identifying opportunities, retention risks and client needs before the client even raises them.” 
 

The 2025 Top Brokers survey found that 65.49% of respondents had not switched advisers recently – either neve, or not within any defined window. By the 2026 survey, using the same question and methodology, that figure had dropped to 56.12%. Every active switching window grew in the same period. Clients who moved brokers within the last six months rose from 12.39% to 14.78%. Those who switched within 12 months increased from 9.40% to 12.78%. Combined, clients who switched within two years rose from 34.51% to 43.88% in a single year – a movement of nearly 10 percentage points, according to NZA’s Top Brokers survey data. 

Loyalty is still the dominant condition in this market, with more than half of clients not having switched recently, but the floor is rising. The advisers who hold their clients through this shift will be the ones who stayed visible between transactions – through refix reviews (the process of selecting a new fixed interest rate when a mortgage term expires), rate monitoring and contacts that did not wait for the client to make the first move.
 

The most striking finding across three years of lender selection data is not what changed. It is what did not. Borrowers who discuss options with their adviser and make the final call based on rate have held between 57.73% and 58.76% across all three years. Those who defer entirely to their adviser have tracked between 32.33% and 33.54%. Together, those two groups account for more than nine in 10 New Zealand borrowers – and that share has not materially moved since 2024. 

The adviser’s role in lender selection is not contested. It is settled practice. Borrowers who arrive with a lender already in mind declined from 2.21% in 2024 to 1.68% in 2026. Those who answered “it depends” fell from 7.73% to 6.76%. Borrowers with firm, independent preferences are a contracting minority. Figures may not sum to 100% in all years due to rounding. 
 

The New Zealand mortgage market in 2026 is not the market it was two years ago. The rate environment has shifted, borrower behaviour has changed, compliance obligations have deepened and technology has moved from peripheral experiment to operational reality. 

The dominant force shaping the market since late 2023 has been the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ’s) reversal of its historic tightening cycle. Between October 2021 and May 2023, the RBNZ lifted the Official Cash Rate (OCR) – the benchmark interest rate that influences mortgage rates across New Zealand – by a cumulative 525 basis points (each basis point equals one-hundredth of a percentage point, meaning a total increase of 5.25 percentage points), according to RBNZ data. This was one of the fastest hiking cycles on record. The consequences for mortgage affordability were severe. 

The response, once the inflation strategy took hold, was equally decisive. The OCR was cut to 2.25% by November 2025 and held at that level through the 27 May 2026 decision. For households carrying fixed-rate mortgages – which account for approximately 90% of New Zealand’s total mortgage stock – the relief came gradually. 

Close to 40% of fixed-rate mortgages repriced across the December 2025 and March 2026 quarters, according to RBNZ mortgage lending data. By December 2025, the average mortgage yield had already declined to 5.1%, down from a peak of around 6.4% in October 2024, according to RBNZ B30 weighted average interest rate data. The affordability recovery is real but uneven, and increased costs in other parts of household budgets have kept financial pressure present even as mortgage repayments ease. 
 

The RBNZ’s May 2026 Financial Stability Report noted that while financial pressures on households had been easing as interest rates fell, heightened global risks – including the Middle East conflict – mean a slower recovery is now likely than previously anticipated. Mortgage debt-servicing costs continued to ease as more borrowers repriced onto lower fixed rates, and acute household stress had started to decline, but the RBNZ cautioned that some households may find it harder to meet loan repayments if global conditions deteriorate further. 

Owner-occupiers accounted for approximately 78% of new mortgage lending in the eleven months to November 2025, totalling NZD 85.8 billion, a 27.8% increase on the same period in 2024 and the busiest pace since the 2021 property boom, according to RBNZ C31 series data. Investor lending was up 36% year on year, though from a low base. 

Fixing preferences had shifted materially. RBNZ data for January 2026 showed the two-year fixed mortgage as the most popular choice for owner-occupiers at 28.6% of new commitments, with the one-year term next at 21.1%. The three-year term attracted growing interest, reaching levels not seen since early 2022.
 

Against that backdrop, advisers are operating under compliance obligations that have grown substantially in scope. Manshil Krishna, director of Benchmark Mortgages in Auckland, told NZA in April 2026 that the challenge has moved well beyond understanding what is required. “The challenge is no longer understanding regulation; it’s managing the growing level of process required to clearly evidence good customer outcomes. Certainly, expectations around verification, documentation quality and suitability analysis have increased significantly.” 

Stuart Wills, adviser at Mortgage Managers in Auckland, has identified the Financial Markets Authority’s (FMA’s) ongoing failure to define what constitutes a ‘client’ for reporting purposes as a source of genuine operational uncertainty, speaking to NZA in 2026. The ambiguity is particularly acute for advisers holding databases that mix active clients with warm leads – a common situation that the FMA’s current guidance does not clearly address.
 

Globally, two-thirds of financial advisers were already using AI or planning to do so within the next 12 months, according to Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) research published in 2025, and New Zealand advisers broadly mirror this trend. In New Zealand specifically, 73% of advisers surveyed by the FPSB said AI could help them better serve clients. By May 2026, efficiency gains in onboarding and workflow optimisation were among the most commonly cited benefits locally. 

New Zealand adviser Andre October of Auckland, speaking to industry media in May 2026, described tools already reading and summarising bank statements, financial statements and loan approval letters. His position on the boundary was instructive: AI plays no role in the advice decision itself. “At most, it may help summarise options once the recommendation has been made.” 

Nicole Ferguson, national director of Loan Market New Zealand, says the leading advisers are currently integrating secure AI models into their daily processes to help transcribe meeting notes, summarise data and write clear handovers to clients. “But there is a limitation here. I do not believe AI will ever replace the power and trust of an adviser,” she says. “An AI platform cannot understand a client’s unique life goals or give that genuine human reassurance when making such a big financial decision.” 

More than 164,000 New Zealanders received digital financial advice in the year to June 2025, nearly double the previous year, with residential mortgage lending the most common product category, according to the FMA’s Digital Advice Provider Returns published in early 2026. 

Ferguson says adviser market share has been growing steadily and is currently at around 60% across New Zealand. As banks continue to scale back their physical retail branches, advisers are stepping up to fill the gap as the primary face of financial guidance in communities. 

Q: The leading mortgage brokers are no longer competing on rates alone. What are they actually competing on? 

A: Speed, clarity, responsiveness and long-term support, particularly in a lending environment that has become genuinely more complex. The top performers have moved well beyond the transaction. They are staying close to clients after settlement, helping them understand what changing market conditions mean for their specific situation and positioning themselves as the person a client calls when they need to make a confident financial decision, not just when they need a loan. Compared to bank channels, brokers also offer something structurally different. Banks operate within segmented departments, which means that as a client’s circumstances evolve, they may find themselves passed between bankers or divisions. A broker who has been alongside that client for years carries a continuity of context that no internal bank structure can replicate. 

Q: How are the best brokers improving turnaround times without compromising the quality of their advice? 

A: The best brokers are becoming much more process-driven behind the scenes while still delivering a highly personal client experience on the outside. That means streamlining administration, using better CRM systems, pre-qualifying clients earlier in the process and setting clearer expectations from the first conversation. The key is balancing efficiency with judgement. Clients want quick updates and clear communication, but responsible advice still requires careful assessment and strong documentation. 

Q: Where does AI genuinely help in mortgage advice, and where does it fall short? 

A: AI is already helping many brokers with administrative efficiency – document summarisation, note-taking, drafting communications and workflow support. The biggest opportunity is allowing advisers to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on client strategy and relationships. That said, mortgage advice still relies heavily on human judgement, experience and the ability to understand individual client circumstances in their full complexity. AI can support a broker’s operational capacity, but it cannot replace responsible lending assessment, emotional intelligence, or the trust a client places in an experienced adviser who knows their situation. 

Q: How do you see the broker’s role in New Zealand evolving relative to banks over the next few years? 

A: Brokers will continue to gain market share as lending becomes more complex and clients increasingly seek personalised guidance rather than institutional processing. Banks will keep investing in digital channels and efficiency, but brokers remain well-positioned because clients still value independent advice, genuine advocacy and relationship-based service that follows them through life rather than routing them through a system. To continue growing, brokers need to keep lifting professional standards, improving how they educate clients, embracing technology where it serves the relationship and demonstrating long-term value that goes well beyond arranging a loan. 
 

Q: How are top mortgage brokers reshaping their client service model to deliver both speed and high-quality, responsible advice? 

A: At NZHL Group, we’re seeing advisers respond by becoming more proactive, staying closer to clients and anticipating needs earlier. That allows decisions to be made sooner, with less pressure and better outcomes. Behind the scenes, automation, AI and integrated workflows are removing friction and speeding up the process, so advisers can focus on strategy, education and client outcomes, not administration. We’re also seeing compliance and responsible lending built into workflows, improving consistency and reducing rework, which lifts both speed and quality. Ultimately, the advisers leading the way aren’t trading off speed for good advice – they’re designing their service model so the two work together. 

Q: Which technologies are moving the needle, and how are the top performers using them differently? 

A: The real shift isn’t any single piece of technology; it’s how everything connects. What’s making the difference now is having CRM, lender data, client communication and workflows working together in real time. At NZHL Group, we’re using that connectivity to move from reactive to predictive advice. Tools like Advice Link – a compliant-by-design workflow platform that simplifies the advice and application process – and DebtNav – a client-facing dashboard that provides a real-time view of borrowing progress and recommended actions – are central to that. AI is also supporting time-intensive tasks like meeting summaries, data capture and reviews. 

Q: Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, how do you see the broker’s role in New Zealand evolving relative to banks? 

A: Advisers already play the role of long-term financial partner and that will only become more critical as the market evolves. The best advisers build deep, enduring relationships with their clients and are recognised as trusted professionals, guiding them through some of life’s biggest financial decisions. Banks will always play a critical role as providers of capital and product, but advisers bring something different: independence, choice across multiple lenders and the ability to take a broader view of a client’s position, connecting lending with protection and longer-term financial goals.
 

Q: Which technologies are moving the needle for brokers, and how are the top performers using them differently? 

A: The bulk of advisers are still using their aggregation platforms, such as Trail CRM – a mortgage-specific client relationship management system widely used across the New Zealand market – which seems to be the market leader in terms of CRM and client interface. Other advisers use tools like Marlo AI, Fathom Notetaker and Claude for processing their compliance framework, including record-keeping, supporting documentation and note-taking in meetings. These kinds of technologies are helping advisers capture the conversation and advice pieces with the client in a structured way. 

Q: How are leading brokers using AI, and where are the most meaningful opportunities and limits? 

A: Leading brokers in the AI space have a lot they are using in their day-to-day business to help optimise processes and capture the conversation and advice pieces with the client. I still firmly believe that a good adviser is going to have that one-on-one conversation with the client, and then they may use AI to summarise the discussion – although I don’t believe it should ever replace the need for an adviser. AI is good based on your input; however, it does not understand the experience an adviser has had, the theory, or the logic of knowing how to use the banking system and apply it to the client’s purpose. 

Q: Looking ahead, how do you see the broker’s role evolving relative to the banks? 

A: Since being in this industry as an independent financial adviser, I have only seen the third-party distribution space go from strength to strength. Looking ahead, banks will continue to get better at speed, digital process, fixed-rate retention and giving clients more options to go direct. This means brokers cannot rely on being purely transactional. The real difference is that a banker works for one provider, whereas an adviser works across multiple providers and can connect the client’s needs with the wider market. The brokers who can do that will continue to grow. The ones who stay purely transactional will find it harder as banks continue to streamline and improve their systems. 
 

Q: What are New Zealand’s leading mortgage advisers doing differently to stay ahead of both peers and direct bank competition? 

A: Staying ahead comes down to two things working in parallel: making a genuine local impact in the community and using technology strategically to build online visibility. When competing with banks, the strongest advisers are winning on choice and local presence. As major banks continue to close physical branches, clients are losing the face-to-face connection they valued. Leading advisers are stepping into that space, remaining the dependable local experts their communities can turn to. To stay ahead of adviser peers, online presence needs to be equally sharp. With AI changing how people find information, leading advisers are moving beyond traditional SEO and focusing on answer engine and generative engine optimisation to ensure their local expertise is the answer AI platforms recommend. 

Q: How are top brokers improving turnaround times without compromising advice quality? 

A: The top performers are letting technology handle the heavy lifting behind the scenes. Smart digital tools that automate data collection and reduce repetitive administration are driving down turnaround times materially without cutting corners on compliance. Technology removes administrative friction and frees the adviser to focus on the high-quality, responsible advice the client actually came for. 

Q: Where do you see the broker’s role in New Zealand heading over the next few years? 

A: Adviser market share has been growing steadily and is currently at around 60% across New Zealand, a figure that is expected to climb further as more borrowers experience what personalised adviser guidance delivers compared to a single bank relationship. As banks continue scaling back physical branches, advisers are filling that gap as the primary face of financial guidance in local communities. To justify and grow that share, advisers need to move well past the transaction and position themselves as lifelong advocates.
 

What the Top Brokers rankings measure is the shape of a client’s experience – how well their situation was understood, how clearly their adviser communicated, whether the guidance arrived before they had to ask for it, and whether the whole process felt like it was being managed on their behalf. Across the Top Brokers, those six criteria tell a consistent story about how the market rates its best. 

The How I Work format puts the same three questions to each featured adviser. What they do when a new client first makes contact. How do they handle a deal when it gets genuinely complicated. And what they give a borrower that a bank simply cannot. 

The advisers featured here were drawn from the Top Brokers on the basis of client nomination volume and average rating across all six criteria, with deliberate attention to regional spread and gender balance.