First home help

Buying your first home is a massive achievement, not to mention a very exciting time. We’ve put together some key information to help make the finance side a bit easier.

Here are four financial options that could help get you into your first home sooner.

KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver first home withdrawal

After three years of being a KiwiSaver member, you may qualify to withdraw as much of your KiwiSaver savings as you like to put towards your first home, as long as you leave a minimum of $1,000 in your account, and any amounts transferred from an Australian complying superannuation scheme.

TIP: it will take up to 10 working days for your application to process, so apply early so you have it when you need it.

See here for more information, including how to apply and the conditions you need to meet.

KiwiSaver HomeStart grant

You might also qualify for a Government grant to help you into your first home, after belonging and contributing regularly to a KiwiSaver scheme for three years.

If you’re purchasing an existing home, you can get a grant of between $3,000 and $5,000 – depending on how long you’ve belonged and contributed to a KiwiSaver scheme.

If you’re purchasing a new home, a property from plans, or land to build a new home on, the grant is doubled to between $6,000 and $10,000 – depending on how long you’ve belonged and contributed to a KiwiSaver scheme.

TIP: These amounts are all per person, so if you’re buying with someone else you could double how much you get, if you both qualify. 

Check out more information on the KiwiSaver HomeStart grant here.

Get help from family

If you have a family member with equity in their property, they may be able to help you into yours. This is done by either taking a guarantee from the person who is helping you out, leveraging your loan against their property, or getting them to be a co-borrower with you for the ‘deposit’ part of your loan. These options may mean you don’t have to save as much deposit, meaning you can get into your home faster. These options are not without risks, especially for the person offering their home in support, so we always recommend independent legal advice for all parties involved before considering these options.

Gifting

Gifting is simple. Whoever is providing you with financial help gives you an amount of money to be used as part, or all of the deposit. The gifter will have no legal involvement in your home loan and there is no expectation for the gifted amount to be paid back.  

We advise that anyone considering the above options seeks independent legal and financial advice as there are risks involved.

We want to hear from you

GoodHome should be an enjoyable and worthwhile place to visit filled with information that helps you to be the smartest homeowner you can be. We want to hear about anything you found useful or anything you didn’t, and anything you want to see more of that would help make this the perfect site for you - email us at goodhome@bnz.co.nz

This article is intended as a general discussion only, and is based on selective information which may not be suitable for your purposes. BNZ strongly recommends the recipients take independent legal, investment and financial advice prior to making any investment decisions.