Financing A Solar Power System Purchase

Solar power systems will save any home in New Zealand considerable amounts of money over time. Financing can help with the initial up front cost of the solar power system. There are several ways you can finance a solar power system:

1. Topping up a home mortgage
2. A personal loan

1. Financing Solar With A Mortgage Top Up

Typically, interest rates on your home's mortgage will be the cheapest financing option and make the most sense. To sweeten the offer some of the largest banks now have low-interest loans for solar and battery purchases, including ANZ, ASB and Westpac.  Details of their offers are below.

ANZ Good Energy Home Loan 

• 1% Interest rate
• Customers can borrow up to $80,000 
• The loan term is 3 years.
• A quote must come from a solar company that is a SEANZ member.
  More ANZ Good Energy Home Loan details here.

ASB Better Homes Top-Up

• 1% Interest rate
• Customers can borrow up to $80,000
• The loan term is 3 years.
• A quote must come from a solar company that is a SEANZ member.
• ASB will need to see a quote/invoice for the purchase that is no more than 60 days old
  More ASB Better Homes Top-up details here

Westpac Warm Up Loan

• 0% Interest rate
• Customers can borrow up to $50,000.
• The loan term is up to 5 years.
• A quote must come from a solar company that is a SEANZ member.
• Westpac will need to see a quote/invoice for the purchase that is no more than 90 days old
  More Westpac Warm Up details here

BNZ Green Home Loan Top-Up

• 1% Interest rate
• Customers can borrow up to $80,000
• The loan term is 3 years.
• A quote must come from a solar company that is a SEANZ member.
  More BNZ Green Home Loan details here

Get 3 Free, No-Obligation Quotes From SEANZ Members Here.

Kiwibank Sustainable Energy Loan

• This is for solar power, small-scale hydro, wind, or geothermal power generation.
• If you borrow more than $5,000, they will contribute up to $2,000 over four years towards the cost of the system – $800 at the end of the first year and $400 at the end of each of the following three years.
• The home loan top-up fee will be waived if you are already a Kiwibank Home Loan customer.
• The sustainable energy loan is a variable-rate home loan. The minimum loan term is seven years and the maximum term is 10 years.
• A quote must come from a solar company that is a SEANZ member.
• The sustainable energy loan has to be taken out either when the system is installed or when you get an agreement for installation.
  More details on Kiwibank's website.

2. Financing Solar With A Personal Loan or Interest-Free Financing

Those offering this type of finance include Q Card, Gem Visa, Q Mastercard and Finance Now.

Companies like Q Card often have deals where you don't have to pay interest on your first year, but from the second year onwards interest creeps up to around 26% p.a..

Buyers should exercise caution; interest-free doesn't always translate to "free". Often in the first year of these 'interest-free' loans the fees can amount to an equivalent of paying 10% p.a..

Personal loans will work for many people as long as the loan is paid off within the interest-free time period. However, if left longer the benefit of cheaper electricity bills from installing solar power will be outweighed by the cost of interest incurred on the loan.