Banks splash the cash to get customers

Several major banks are offering cash sums to entice home owners to sign up with them for a mortgage.

Kiwibank unveiled a scheme this week to give money from its own kitty to approved clients.

The scheme runs for this month and will add up to 1% of the cost of the loan as an upfront contribution from the bank.

The offer is capped at $10,000, which puts an upper limit on the value of a qualifying home at $1 million.

The Senior Product Manager for Home Lending at Kiwibank Pip Maxwell called this a 'market-leading' offer, and it follows an earlier proposal from Kiwibank to enable people to team up with family and friends to buy a house.

In fact Kiwibank is not alone in this practice.

Westpac is offering a cash contribution of $5000 to loans over $500,000 to help cover costs such as legal fees. The offer also lasts for June.

And ANZ is also offering a minimum $5000 cash contribution on loans over $500,000.

All the banks are putting conditions on their loans.

Typical rules include requiring borrowers to have a reasonable deposit and agreeing to stick to the bank giving the money for a set period of time.

The rules typically put a limit on the time taken to draw down the loan.