Lenders justified in refusing to finance wraps: NZMBA

That’s because the ultimate buyer of the house is a third party outside the primary lender/borrower relationship.

This third party "can be seriously disadvantaged if, for some reason, they have major difficulties at any stage with the repayments made to the primary borrower," Berry says.

The third party has no real protection an can lose a significant amount of equity if they default, he says.

With wrap mortgages, an investor buys a house using a mortgage. They then sell it to someone else with little or no deposit who pays a percentage point or two on top of the original interest rate, getting in exchange an agreement to take ownership in, say, 30 years time.

But if along the way the buyer defaults on repayments, the original owner keeps the title and any equity the buyer might have built up.

Berry says at least the third party can control whether they go into default, but the potential exists for the third party to be even more disadvantaged.

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