Well, the election’s over and the National Party is back for a further three years. Here’s a summary of their housing policy details and how it’s designed to help lower income, first-time buyers.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS PLEDGED TO:

• Help about 90,000 lower and middle income first home buyers into their own home over the next five years – 40,000 more than would be helped under current policies.
• Replace the KiwiSaver First Home Deposit Subsidy with a KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant, doubling the support for buying a new home and increasing the house price limits: $550,000 in Auckland, $450,000 in Wellington, Christchurch, and similarly-priced markets & $350,000 for the rest of the country.
• Enable larger KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawals by including the member’s tax credit (meaning first home buyers will now be able to withdraw all of their KiwiSaver savings except the $1000 kick-start).
• Expand eligibility for Welcome Home Loans by aligning the house price caps with the new KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant.
• Encourage greater supply of affordable new housing. KiwiSaver HomeStart will complement our work that’s freeing up land supply, reducing building material costs, reining in infrastructure and compliance costs, and investing in sector skills and productivity.
  
  

The KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant and Welcome Home Loans have additional criteria of people having an income below $80,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a couple, and the house being purchased must be below the regional house price limits.

HOW IT WILL WORK:

For example, imagine a couple living in Auckland, each earning $40,000 a year. They’ve been in KiwiSaver for five years, and are looking to buy a first home that’s under the price limit.

Under the changes, they could together withdraw up to $29,000 from their KiwiSaver accounts, and get either a $10,000 or $20,000 HomeStart Grant, depending on whether they’re buying an existing or a new home. In total, that means a deposit after five years of almost $40,000 – or almost $50,000 if they are buying new.

That would be enough on its own to get a Welcome Home Loan for a house costing up to $400,000 or up to $500,000 if new – depending, of course, on their ability to service the mortgage.

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