Buying Through a Trust.
Structured Right the First Time.

The problem.

Marcus, a 47-year-old business owner in Tauranga, held his family home in a trust established years earlier for asset-protection reasons on his accountant's advice. When he decided to buy a $820,000 investment property, he wanted it held in the same trust for consistency — but quickly found most bank branch staff weren't equipped to handle trust lending smoothly.

Two initial enquiries stalled for weeks: one bank required all three trustees (Marcus, his wife, and an independent trustee) to attend an in-branch appointment together, which was near-impossible to coordinate; another wanted a level of trust-deed legal review that added significant delay and legal cost before even assessing the loan.

Marcus was concerned the purchase — already under a tight due-diligence deadline — would fall through purely on lending-structure friction, not because the loan itself was unaffordable.

How we solved it.

The result.

Full approval was issued in 24 days — inside Marcus's due-diligence window with several days to spare. The trust settled on the $820,000 Tauranga rental property, adding to Marcus's existing portfolio held under the same structure.

The loan was fixed 3 years at 5.89%, chosen for payment certainty across Marcus's business planning cycle, with rental income covering the majority of the repayment.

Marcus's feedback: "Every bank I called seemed unsure how to handle a trust purchase quickly. Finch had a lender and a process ready to go, and made sure our solicitor had everything sorted before we even needed it."

Useful NZ sources: the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for current lending policy, and Kāinga Ora for first-home support schemes.