Home loans for the credit impaired

Two years ago, if the banks didn't want your mortgage business, your choices were limited and interest rates were high.

And few organisations outside the banks were willing to lend, according to mortgage broking veteran Lawrence Diack of Approved Mortgage Brokers.

The interest rates on offer often looked like a slap in the face for borrowers trying to get into their first home, or to hold on to the one they owned after running into financial trouble.

But New Zealand has undergone an explosion in non-bank, "nonformula" lending, Diack says, and there are now at least 19 such lenders, with GE Money (the new name for GE Finance) the latest to launch into the market.

That explosion of providers, driven by a property boom and the rise and rise of mortgage broking, means a fairer deal for those the banks decline with their "tick-box" approach to lending.

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