About Squirrel

We've been mortgage broking for 16 years, and over time we've added other carefully chosen products to our offering like saving and investing.

We're a company who love what we do. Think you've got what it takes to join us? Check out what it's like to work for Squirrel. 

Squirrel team gathered outside, looking happy
Swoosh

Squirrel in numbers

Instead of boring you with heaps of blurb about how great we are, we’ve put together a bunch of facts that tell the story in (hopefully) a more interesting, and Squirrel way.


16

Years in the business

We opened our doors in 2008!

120 (ish)

People working at Squirrel

Would you like to join us?

3

Locations

But thanks to technology we're everywhere!

1

Champion touch rugby team

Who won their competition (again) this year 💪

50,000+

Kiwis we’ve helped into homes

NZ’s most trusted independent mortgage broker

7.42% p.a

Average return for term investments

During the last month

$20 Billion

Of mortgage lending overseen

Yes, that’s billion with a “B”

$700+ Million

Total lending from our own products

And there’s plenty more where that came from!

9

Consecutive years we won awards for our mortgage brokering

Rumour has it, we're the best in the business

100%

Principal and interest paid back to investors

We put our money where our mouth is

$40m+

Interest paid to investors

And counting

38,000 Kiwis

Read our monthly newsletter

Join the mailing list. No spam - that's a promise

200

Squirrel shareholders

And we love every last one

1,400+

5 star overall satisfaction client reviews

1

Curious website visitor – you!

Thanks for reading.
Can we help you get a mortgage, or grow your money?

Time flies when you’re battling to make the industry fairer…

The History of Squirrel

T-Rex

You’ve gone too far back!

Squirrels haven’t evolved yet!
2008
The first acorn is planted

The first acorn is planted

On 29th January, John Bolton (aka JB) founded Squirrel during the midst of the GFC. Never one to shy away from a challenge, JB was sick of seeing the same old issues coming up again and again for home buyers. Nobody was in their corner, everyone was working on behalf of the seller.

JB felt it was time to even up the playing field so that's what he did with Squirrel.

Squirrel is all about the buyer.

2009
Starting as we intended to continue

Starting as we intended to continue

Squirrel won the first award for mortgage broking from the NZ Financial Services Group and have continually won this award and others every year since.

2010
Welcome Eleanor!

Welcome Eleanor!

Our longest serving team member (other than JB) Eleanor began working for Squirrel. Still going strong today!

2011
Making moves...

Making moves...

Squirrel quietly acquires more mortgage advisers and slowly grows their market share in Auckland.

2012
Serving our communities

Serving our communities

Squirrel Mortgages launches a specialist team to service the Indian communities in Auckland and updates its logo.

2013
Another specialist team

Another specialist team

We expand to include another specialist team to service the Chinese communities of Auckland.

2014
A fresh coat of paint

A fresh coat of paint

Squirrel gets a facelift in the form of a new logo and office space on College Hill.

2015
For Kiwis, by Kiwis

For Kiwis, by Kiwis

Squirrel Money peer-to-peer (P2P) lending launches. The first NZ P2P lender to be solely funded by Kiwi retail investors, lending to Kiwi borrowers. No institutions involved.

Also the first to use a reserve fund to cover any losses so investors get their monthly payments even if one of our borrowers misses a theirs.

Squirrel takes all 27 employees to the Gold Coast, our first conference. What goes on tour, stays on tour.

2016
Market innovation

Market innovation

Squirrel was the first to offer a secondary market to their P2P investors, offering them a way to sell their investments in the marketplace allowing them to get out early if they need to.

Squirrel Mortgages acquires Aspire Advisers, almost doubling the size of the company overnight.

2017
Big milestones

Big milestones

Squirrel Mortgages hits over $4 billion written in home loans. Squirrel Money hits it's first million dollar month in lending.

2018
10 years of fighting for fair

10 years of fighting for fair

Squirrel's 10 year anniversary. Squirrel Mortgages and Squirrel Money sister companies join forces and become one, complete with a new brand look and feel. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!

2019
Expanding our offering

Expanding our offering

Squirrel launches our own peer-to-peer mortgage products in March to help clients that don't quite fit inside the bank box, allowing the P2P lending platform to rapidly grow.

2020
True to our values, even in rough times

True to our values, even in rough times

The year of the pandemic. Squirrel continued to grow, despite a year of uncertainty and turmoil we stayed true to our purpose.

Growing our staff by around 50% and doubling our P2P lending, we launched some exciting new products that benefited both investors and borrowers alike including term investments into residential mortgages and bridging finance.

2021
We have liftoff!

We have liftoff!

Squirrel launches Launchpad, a unique home loan created by us to give first home buyers a leg up onto the property ladder faster. Investors get a piece of the pie too, because they get to earn returns by funding part of the deposit portion of the loan. Win win.

2022
Big changes

Big changes

It's the end of an era. JB passes the CEO torch to David Cunningham. JB hasn't left the building though and is still found working up the next big idea, between brokering deals.

Speaking of buildings, our College Hill crew joins HQ in the newly renovated mega office on Sale St. Let the good times roll!

Squirrel & Wellington's own iconic advisory business, The Home Loan Shop, merge. Like tomato sauce and a saussie sizzle, we're better together.

2023
Fifteen years on

Fifteen years on

The year starts off with a bang as we introduce our very own high interest on-call account. This was a natural next step with our investment platform having already laid the foundations. It's just another way we're putting more money into Kiwi pockets.

2024

What's next?

We’re still working on it… but one thing’s for sure. It’s going to be our biggest year yet.

Don’t just take our word for it

StarStarStarStarStar

See for yourself what our clients think with 1,446 five star reviews on Shopper Approved.

B

Billy

New Zealand

StarStarStarStarStar

We loved working with Adam. He was down to earth and really proactive in assisting us with our first home. We couldn't thank Adam enough for making the process easy and being with us every step of the way. I would highly recommend using squirrel and work with Adam and the team. A++ from me.

R

Raj

New Zealand

StarStarStarStarStar

Jessica was/is absolutely a pleasure to work with. She works 100% for her clients, a no-nonsense person with precise recommendation. Thank You Jessica

J

Jo

New Zealand

StarStarStarStarStar

Highly recommend Squirrel to sort out a mortgage with the banks takes the hassle out of going to separate banks with so much information they do the hard yards for you - Baz was a superstar and helped me all the way to my new home.

K

Kat

New Zealand

StarStarStarStarStar

My Adviser Cade was so awesome!! He was very knowledgeable and made the whole process very easy for me. I am also really happy with the mortgage deal he got for me and how quickly everything was arranged and completed. Will definitely be using Squirrel again.