See if you can afford it — before the open home.
Plug in what you earn and what you've saved. Stackhold tells you, in plain English, how much you can borrow, what your stress-tested repayments would look like, and the month a 20% deposit becomes realistic — so you walk into open homes with a real number, not a hopeful one.
No credit card. No email to start. Five seconds to a real number.
Three things stop most first-home buyers.
If you've felt any of these, you're not behind — you're just missing the picture. Stackhold gives you the picture.
"What if I pay too much?"
Stackhold runs the cashflow at the actual price you'd offer — including stress-tested repayments at 8.5%, rates, insurance and a vacancy buffer if you ever rent it out. You see how much room you have before it hurts.
"What if my deposit isn't enough?"
You'll see the exact LVR band you land in (5% / 10% / 20%), what repayments look like with lender's mortgage insurance baked in, and the month you'd hit each next band if you keep saving at your current rate.
"What if the bank says no?"
Stackhold uses the same DTI cap (NZ 7×, AU 6×, US 43%) and stress-test rate your bank uses. So when it says 'this fits' or 'this doesn't yet', you know what the assessor will see.
How much can you actually borrow?
Three fields. Five seconds. A real answer — using your market's DTI and LVR rules. Then you'll see what Stackhold unlocks when you plug in the full picture.
- NZ, AU, US rules baked in
- Stress-tested serviceability
- No tracking, no email required
A live picture of your buying power.
Change a number — your salary, your deposit, the asking price — and the whole picture updates with you.
- Borrowing power in your real currency
- Stress-tested repayments, bank rate
- Deposit gap to the next LVR band
- Real date for when the next band lands
Plain English. Real numbers. No jargon.
Stackhold is built for people who don't live in spreadsheets — answers in real dates, real dollars, real deposit gaps.
"I'm not a spreadsheets person. Stackhold told me exactly when I could afford my first home — in a real number, in my own currency. No jargon."
"Finally a tool that speaks NZ. LVR, DTI and the stress-test buffer are baked in — I stopped rebuilding spreadsheets every time the OCR moved."
"We owned one rental and kept putting off buying another because the numbers scared us. Stackhold laid out the whole picture — we bought with our eyes open."
Quotes from beta users. Real names and photos coming as the app rolls out publicly.
Free: the first-home buyer's pre-approval checklist
A 1-page PDF covering everything a New Zealand or Australian bank asks for before they say yes — income evidence, deposit source, debt declarations, and the three things that quietly disqualify first applications.
We'll email it once and add you to occasional Stackhold updates. Unsubscribe anytime.
First-home buyer questions, answered straight.
I have never bought a house before. Is this going to be too complicated?
No. Start with three numbers: what you earn, what you've saved, and the kind of house you'd want to buy. Stackhold tells you in plain English whether you can afford it now, and if not, the realistic month you can. Anything technical (LVR, DTI, stress-test rate) has a one-line definition on hover.
How is this different from the bank's pre-approval calculator?
A pre-approval is a 60-day photo of one moment. Stackhold is a live picture you can change — if your rent goes up, your salary changes, or the price you want creeps higher, the answer updates in front of you. You also see what the bank is actually testing for (stress-tested repayments at 8.5%, deposit + LVR band, debt-to-income cap), not just one summary number that expires.
I don't want to give my email or credit card just to play with the numbers.
You don't have to. The free calculators on /tools/ and the borrowing-power widget on this page work without signing in. Sign up only when you want to save scenarios, ask the AI assistant a question, or come back to your numbers later.
What about KiwiSaver / FHB grant / first-home loan schemes?
You enter your real deposit (savings + KiwiSaver + any grants) as one number. Stackhold then tells you which LVR band you fall into, what your stress-tested repayments look like, and whether your deposit clears the 5% / 10% / 20% bands lenders care about. We don't replace official scheme guidance — but we tell you whether the deposit you'll have after withdrawing KiwiSaver is enough.
I'm saving — how do I see when I'll have enough?
Add your monthly savings rate alongside your current deposit. Stackhold projects forward and tells you the month your deposit clears the LVR band you want. Then it shows what the repayments would look like at the price level you'd target by then — so you know the answer before the house price moves out of reach.
Plan your next purchase with real numbers.
Start free. No credit card. Web, iPhone and Android.
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