Hell yeah! 

Banks always want to know your full financial position when assessing lending. They want to understand what your commitments are before they
proceed in deciding on whether to lend you further funds.

Just because you have liabilities overseas for example, this shouldn’t be treated any differently. It is no different to approaching ANZ for a loan, and
not telling them about a loan from ASB that you have. Non-disclosure doesn’t sit well with lenders.

So how will your overseas incomes and debts change the way you are assessed by NZ lenders?

For the income side, the two main forms of overseas income we see are as follows:

  • Personal Earned Income
    • If you are employed overseas and buying property in NZ (because you are a permanent resident or citizen) OR are living in NZ and employed and
      earning foreign currency then what most banks will do is convert the foreign income to NZD equivalent, and then scale it back or reduce
      it (depending on the lender, and the currency) by between 10% and 40%, to allow for exchange rate risk.
    • If you are self-employed overseas (as per above) OR self-employed here and earning foreign currency, then it gets even more difficult – most
      lenders will not accept self-employed overseas income. This may change in the future, but at the time of writing is very difficult.
  • Rental Income:
    • This will be treated much like employed income above. The foreign currency will be converted to NZD, then scaled accordingly – however there
      is one major difference – they will also scale back a further 20-25% off that figure due to it being rental income (to allow for operating
      expenses of a rental – rates, insurance,...