Matter value

$3.2m four-property residential refinance

An Auckland property investor needed to switch four secured properties from CBA to ANZ before a fixed-rate roll, including a cross-collateralised pair that needed restructuring. We turned the discharge and registration cycle around in six business days.

The challenge

The client, a self-employed contractor with four investment properties across Auckland and Hamilton, had a fixed-rate term rolling on the second of the month. Staying with CBA at the new fixed rate would have cost an extra 0.65 percent per annum across the portfolio, or roughly $20,800 a year. <!-- ADAM: confirm the rate spread and the dollar figure. --> ANZ had offered a competitive package on the condition that all four loans moved across in the same settlement.

The complication was that two of the four properties were cross-collateralised under a single CBA loan. To split them across two new ANZ facilities (one residential, one investment), we needed CBA to release security on one property without the other one settling at exactly the same moment. Banks do not love doing this. The client also had a personal guarantee in favour of a small commercial loan that needed to come off title before ANZ would register the new mortgage on one of the Hamilton properties.

What we did

We mapped the full chain on day one. Four discharge requests, three new mortgages, two property revaluations already on file at ANZ, and one personal guarantee needing release. We sequenced the documents so every party's signature was captured in the right order without anyone holding up the chain.

We negotiated directly with CBA's discharge team to release security on the cross-collateralised pair on a "morning of settlement" basis, supported by an undertaking from us as the client's solicitor that the new ANZ mortgages would register that same day. CBA accepted on the strength of the undertaking and our existing relationship with their team.

For the personal guarantee, we wrote to the commercial lender requesting release on the basis of restructured security. They came back the next day with a release subject to a $1 consideration and a deed of release. We turned the deed around the same afternoon.

ANZ's solicitors received our certified loan documents on day three, the discharges and authorities all signed and ready by day four, and we requested registration on day five.

The outcome

All four properties refinanced in a single settlement on the morning of day six. The fixed-rate roll happened on the second of the month as planned, the new ANZ rate kicked in immediately, and the client started saving roughly $400 a week on interest from day one. <!-- ADAM: confirm the per-week saving. -->

The client used the breathing room to draw a top-up on the residential facility and put the proceeds toward a fifth property they had been watching for months.

Key takeaway

Multi-property refinances are a sequencing problem more than a legal problem. The legal documents are largely standard. What makes or breaks the timeline is whether the lawyer can hold all four discharge files, three new mortgage files, and the bank-to-bank communication in their head at the same time and chase whichever piece is dragging. Cross-collateralised security can usually be unbundled if the receiving bank's solicitor will give an undertaking, and undertakings between known firms are how this work actually gets done quickly.

Context

We do a steady volume of multi-property refinances, mostly Auckland investors moving between the four big banks as fixed-rate rolls come up. The legal cost is a fraction of the rate saving, and on portfolios above three properties the timeline matters more than the fee.

If you are looking at a refinance and the bank has given you a window, get the lawyer involved before you sign the loan offer. Half the timing pressure disappears when the legal side runs in parallel rather than after the fact.