KiwiSaver First Home Withdrawal Rules

Who can make a KiwiSaver first home withdrawal?

Inland Revenue: you may be eligible when buying your first home if you have been in KiwiSaver for at least 3 years. You must leave $1,000 in your account. Funds transferred from an Australian complying superannuation scheme cannot be withdrawn. Joining, KS2 rates, and other early paths sit on the KiwiSaver hub. This page stays on the first home withdrawal.

Kāinga Ora: you must intend to live in the property. It cannot be used to buy an investment property. The KiwiSaver Act 2006 says the land in New Zealand must be, or be intended to be, your principal place of residence (or for you and your family). The withdrawal is one use of this clause. If you have already made this withdrawal from any KiwiSaver scheme, you cannot use it again.

The Act also lets you buy an interest in a dwellinghouse on Māori land, with evidence of your right to occupy that land. Ownership of Māori land is not treated as a current property share for Kāinga Ora’s previous owner test.

How much can I take out?

Inland Revenue lists what you can take: your contributions, your employer’s contributions, the government contribution, interest you have earned, and fee subsidies if you got these. You must leave $1,000. The government contribution line is the same $260.72 rules covered on KiwiSaver government contribution $260.72 rules.

Sources: Inland Revenue getting my KiwiSaver savings for my first home, and KiwiSaver Act 2006, Schedule 1, clause 8.

Do I apply to Kāinga Ora or my provider?

Kāinga Ora splits the door. If you are a first home buyer, contact your KiwiSaver provider or complying fund provider. You do not apply for this through Kāinga Ora. If you are a previous home owner, you still apply through the provider, but Kāinga Ora must first determine whether you are a qualifying person. If you currently own a home, land, or a share in a property, Kāinga Ora says you will not be eligible for this feature.

Kāinga Ora’s realisable assets list includes money in bank accounts, shares, stocks and bonds, investments in banks or financial institutions, building society shares, money held by a real estate agent or solicitor as a deposit, net equity in a caravan or boat valued more than $5,000, extra vehicles not used as ordinary private transport valued more than $5,000, and other individual assets valued over $5,000. Its asset price caps on that page are marked correct as of 15 May 2023 and subject to change. Check the live Kāinga Ora KiwiSaver first home withdrawal table for the region you are buying in. That page was updated 23 April 2026.

The First Home Grant is closed. govt.nz: it finished in May 2024. Kāinga Ora stopped new applications at 1pm on 22 May 2024. Forum threads still mix a closed grant (including old “contribute 3% for 3 years” language) with this withdrawal. Membership of 3 years and leaving $1,000 is the withdrawal test Inland Revenue and Kāinga Ora publish. A First Home Loan with a 5% deposit is still on the Kāinga Ora menu, and govt.nz says you can use a KiwiSaver withdrawal toward that 5%.

Pull highlight: the KiwiSaver Act 2006 requires this withdrawal to be paid to a lawyer acting for you. It is not paid to your personal account. If settlement does not complete, the lawyer’s undertaking is that the money is repaid to the scheme manager on your account.

When does the 3 year clock start?

Inland Revenue’s public page says you must be in KiwiSaver for at least 3 years. The KiwiSaver Act 2006, Schedule 1, clause 8 is more specific. You qualify if you have not used this withdrawal before, and either 3 years have expired after Inland Revenue received your first contribution, or you have been a member of one or more KiwiSaver schemes or complying superannuation funds for a combined total of 3 years or more. For wage deductions, the Act treats Inland Revenue as receiving the contribution on the payday date in the employment information, or otherwise on the 15th of that month.

PersonalFinanceNZ threads ask whether the clock starts when the account was opened or when the first dollar arrived. Follow the Act’s two tests, then ask your provider which one it is using for your membership. Complying funds are not all the same: Kāinga Ora says not every complying fund permits a first home withdrawal, so check that deed.

What counts as owning land already?

The Act is about buying an estate in land in New Zealand: a fee simple estate, a leasehold estate, or a stratum estate, as your principal place of residence. It is a purchase. Paying a builder later on land you already hold is not that purchase.

Some past interests are disregarded when the Act asks whether you have already held an estate in land: holding as a bare trustee, a leasehold estate, an interest in Māori land, and some trustee situations where you have no reasonable expectation of occupying the land as your home until someone else dies. That is the Act, not a forum shortcut. If you currently own a home, land, or a share, Kāinga Ora says this withdrawal feature is not available.

What people get stuck on

Provider blogs often say you must live in the home for 6 months. Inland Revenue and Kāinga Ora’s live eligibility pages say you must intend to live in it, and that it cannot be an investment property. The Act uses principal place of residence. If a provider asks for a 6 month occupation declaration, that is the provider’s pack, not a sentence on those two government pages.

SBS Wealth asks for the completed pack at least 10 working days before the deposit or settlement date, and says it cannot pay after settlement. UniSaver’s administrator asks for documents at least 10 working days before settlement. Those are provider timetables. The Act’s hard rule is payment to a lawyer for the purchase, with the listed undertakings. Start the pack when the agreement is signed, not in the last week.

ANZ and some other providers also subtract government contributions received while you lived overseas without permanent residence. That extra lock is not in Inland Revenue’s first home list or in clause 8(4) of the Act, which names $1,000 and the Australian transfer. Ask your provider what it will actually pay, in writing.

Frequently asked questions