Kāinga Ora First Home Grant
Are you eligible for the KiwiSaver HomeStart Grant?
To be eligible, you must have been regularly contributing to KiwiSaver for three years or more and, upon purchasing a home, you must live in the property for at least six months (and it cannot be an investment). There are restrictions in relation to your income and the purchase price of the property.
If you have owned a property before, you will also need to obtain confirmation from Kāinga Ora that you qualify for second-chance withdrawal. You can obtain more information about the second-chance eligibility process on the https://kaingaora.govt.nz/home-ownership/first-home-grant/check-you-are-eligible-for-first-home-grant/
You must also have 5 per cent of the total purchase price as a deposit (in other words, money that you can put towards the purchase price excluding bank lending). This deposit includes your available KiwiSaver balance, the First Home grant, savings and any money being gifted to you by family or friends.
View the full list of https://kaingaora.govt.nz/home-ownership/first-home-grant/check-you-are-eligible-for-first-home-grant/.
HomeStart Grant application process
The entire process can take up to four weeks or 20 working days from Kāinga Ora receiving your application through to approval of the First Home Grant. If you have pre-approval, this timeframe is reduced to two weeks or 10 working days. Your pre-approval is valid for six months. The actual funds are paid to our trust account prior to settlement.
Because of the lengthy timeframes required by Kāinga Ora, we strongly recommend that you apply for pre-approval. Applications for pre-approval and the First Home grant are made directly to Kianga Ora https://kaingaora.govt.nz/home-ownership/first-home-grant/apply-for-the-first-home-grant/apply-for-pre-approval-for-a-first-home-grant/
Need assistance? HomeLegal Lawyers are here to help
The team here at HomeLegal are well-versed in the detail of HomeStart Grant applications. One of our expert lawyers will be happy to assist you through the HomeStart Grant application process. For assistance, Contact Us or give us a ring at 0508 HOMELEGAL today!
