Good News in the Budget for First Home Buyers

The Government’s Budget 2022 announcement out last week provided positive changes to the First Home Loan and First Home Grant schemes administered by Kāinga Ora. This means more people now qualify for the mortgage help programmes these schemes provide. The First Home Loan allows buyers to get into a first home sooner with as little as a 5% deposit, while the first home grants can be as high as $20,000 towards the deposit (for a qualifying couple buying a new build home).

Effective immediately, house prices caps will be removed entirely from the Government backed ‘First Home Loan’ providing great choices for first home buyers. 

Some of the key high level eligibility criteria are as follows:

• Earned less than the income caps in past 12m ($95,000 for an individual, $150,000 for an individual with dependents, or $150,000 for two buyers together)
  
  

• Not currently owning any property
  
  

• Have been contributing to KiwiSaver for 3+ years
  
  

• Purchasing a property that is within the regional house price caps (Auckland has moved from $700,000 to $875,000, Hamilton and Tauranga from $600,000 to $700,000, Christchurch increased to $750,000 while Wellington and Queenstown up to $925,000)
  
  

• Agree to live in the property for at least six months
  
  

Under the new regime, house price and income caps will be reviewed every six months in an effort to keep the scheme more relevant (with data showing uptake has dropped rapidly over the past three years – from 15,470 between April to 2018 and March 2019 to only 6,834 in the same period in 2021-2022).

First Home Grant Eligibility Criteria available here: (kaingaora.govt.nz)