How a Bridging Loan Helped One Family Buy Before They Sold

How to buy in a competitive suburb without selling your home first

A lot of people assume the suburbs with the best school zones are out of reach, or that getting there means selling your house first and hoping the timing works out. One family found a way around both, thanks to Finance Link.

They'd been looking for close to three years. They had two young boys, a clear idea of the school zone they wanted, and nothing coming up that fit. Rather than settle for something else, they continued the search until the right house appeared, in Mount Albert, an Auckland suburb where good school zones keep demand high.

When it did, the usual problem showed up too. Their own home would need to sell to fund the purchase, but with two young kids they didn't want to sell first and end up renting in between, or rushing into whatever was left on the market by the time their place sold.

Aaron and Jodhi worked through it with them. A closed bridging facility, tied to a confirmed settlement date on their existing home, meant they could secure the new house without selling first. Along the way, a small hiccup came up too. The new property's ensuite wasn't fully signed off yet, so settlement was structured for a date once that was sorted, no risk, no losing the house over it.

Their previous home sold with a long settlement, giving them room to secure the new house without pressure. Between the two settlements sat a one month gap, covered by the bridge, which gave them time to finish renovations before moving in rather than living through building work with two young children.