KiwiBuy makes it possible for ordinary families to own their own home.

We’re calling on the Government to support KiwiBuy, the Affordable Home Ownership Initiative, and offer pathways to home ownership for families. These pathways are proven and tested models like Progressive Home Ownership and Shared Ownership already available across Aotearoa New Zealand through providers such as the Housing Foundation and Habitat for Humanity, and you can help by signing the petition for KiwiBuy below.

Check out one of our new build homes in Glen Innes, Auckland

WHY DO WE NEED KIWIBUY?

For many Kiwis the ability to buy a home with today’s inflated markets and current mortgage constraints is simply unaffordable.

Since the early 1990s home ownership rates have fallen continuously.

This decline in homeownership rates from 1991 coincides with the end of State support for home ownership programmes for modest income households.

However due to a range of constraints including funding and access to affordable and appropriate land, the delivery of enough KiwiBuy homes to meet demand has not been possible.

KiwiBuy represents established community housing providers experienced in providing genuinely affordable home ownership housing.

Home ownership facts:

  • Right now the home ownership rate sits at the lowest level in 65 years.
  • New Zealand’s home ownership has been falling since the early 1990s.
  • In 1991 almost 74% of households owned their home either debt free or with a mortgage. Today that proportion is less than 63%.
  • If New Zealand today had the same rate of home ownership that we had in 1991 then 200,000 more families and households would own their homes instead of renting.

How does KiwiBuy work?

Shared Ownership

Under the ‘Affordable Equity’ model a household purchases a share of the property at a price point they can afford (subject to criteria and conditions). The remainder is owned by our community housing providers and both parties will be represented on the property title. The household organises their own mortgage (with support from KiwiBuy), the advantage being that under this arrangement, they will have a smaller mortgage than they will ordinarily require to purchase the property at market value.

Benefits:

  • You get all the privileges of home ownership without having to fund 100% of the cost yourself
  • You buy what you can afford
  • Your interest in the home grows in proportion to your ownership share (if you own 70% of the home you get 70% of any value uplift)
  • You can increase your share to 100% over time; KiwiBuy encourages you to become the full owner of your home
  • When you want to move on you can sell your equivalent share (e.g. 70%) back to the housing provider, or on the open market, based on an independent valuation less a management fee.

Progressive Home Ownership

Under Progressive Home Ownership you partner with a Community Housing Provider to help you on your journey to home ownership. You can move into a new home, paying a rent that is affordable based on your income, while you build up a deposit to buy your home, at its original value.

Benefits:

  • Over a 5 year period the community housing provider delivers financial planning support so you can clear your debts and save a deposit
  • You will join Kiwisaver (if not joined up already) and after the qualifying period you can use your savings towards the deposit for your home
  • Partnership with an organisation that shares your aspirations to be a homeowner
  • Stability of tenure, making sure you have a decent place to call home, with affordable payments and without fear of eviction
  • Support services, so that at year 5 you are mortgage ready
  • A hand up to put your deposit together
  • A well priced home to call your own

Four Community Housing Providers united to found KiwiBuy in 2018 to help address New Zealand’s housing crisis.

More providers have since joined in support and delivery of Progressive Home Ownership.

Salvation Army – Working for the eradication of poverty in New Zealand, and the authors of Beyond Renting, which led to the creation of KiwiBuy

Habitat for Humanity – Believes in a world where everyone has a decent place to live and has worked with thousands of families in Aotearoa since 1993 to achieve this through its Progressive Home Ownership programme and offer many other practical initiatives

Housing Foundation – Who deliver KiwiBuy products and services across New Zealand, and have assisted many families into home ownership through Shared Ownership

Community Housing Aotearoa – Who have a vision of all New Zealanders well housed and represent 90 Community Housing Providers nationwide

Additional providers include:

Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust – Offering Progressive Home Ownership through a permanently affordable and secure tenure leasehold model to committed residents of our district.