Yesterday the government made an announcement on changes to help keep buying your first home within reach. One of the key changes made is to the criteria of the First Home Grant and First Home Loan schemes.
The First home grant scheme gives first home buyers a one off payment from the government of up to $5,000 for existing properties or up to $10,000 for a new property. The amount you receive varies based on the length of time you have been contributing to KiwiSaver and each buyer can be eligible. The First Home Loan offered by specific lenders is the opportunity to purchase with a deposit as low as 5% and yo can find out more information on that here.
It has become increasingly difficult to meet the criteria of these schemes as the prices of houses across the country have increased particularly over the past year. The following changes are set to keep this goal of so many within reach.
So what are the key changes you should know about?
Income caps increased: You can now earn up to $95K/year for an individual or up to combined income of $150K/year for one or more people buying together.
House price caps increased: as per the below table this outlines the current pricing caps and the new pricing caps for both new build properties and existing properties. There have been some minor changes in some places but some big changes in places where house prices have risen the most. There is also a strong push towards creating more homes so the new price caps have increased as well.
With these changes that come into place on the 1st of April 2021, this will allow more people the opportunity to get into their first homes with the First Home Loan low deposit scheme and assistance for their deposit.
If you would like to know how this would relate to your personal situation, reach out as we would love to see how we can help you to get ready and purchase your first home!
Get in contact with any of the team here at My Mortgage by clicking here!