New Zealand passes solar tipping point
rnz.co.nz
rnz.co.nz
And for comparison, power in Australia was always about 2x more expensive, while solar was about 2x cheaper. That's a 4x worse payback period in NZ!
> He said it was cheaper to put solar on houses than build solar farms
How?
I get the equity requirement. But why an active mortgage?
The banks make very low profits on 0% interest (government subsidised green) loans with a max total lending limit of NZD50k and many approvals might be less than $10k. The loan needs to use the home as collateral.
It wouldn't be cost effective (for bank or lender) to originate a new loan: instead the green loan uses the paperwork from an existing loan.
The bank can use the existing mortgage's legal paperwork to attach the new debt to the lender's house for collateral.
Approval, legal, and eligibility costs are reduced because an active loan has already been approved. The bank mostly wants to check that the lender's likelihood of repayment hasn't drastically worsened (e.g. lost their job).
Because it is a government program it is likely the banks don't want to be seen (by lenders or the government) as making a profit (even if they were just trying to cover costs).
Program restrictions likely prevent banks from using fees to make a "profit" since 0% interest doesn't leave much room for banks to make money.
I assume the government funds the loans and I assume the government doesn't underwrite the liability. I would guess the funding is limited and the government is very tight, restricting any potential profit for the bank.
You'd need to look at the government documentation.