If you’ve searched for the First Home Grant, here’s the short answer first: it was discontinued in May 2024, and it isn’t coming back in its old form. If you were planning your deposit around it, that’s a real change to plan around, not a technicality. The good news is there are still two solid tools available to first-home buyers in 2026, and this guide walks through both.
The First Home Grant, the government top-up once worth up to $5,000 for an existing home or $10,000 for a new build, was discontinued in May 2024. It has not been replaced by an equivalent cash grant.
Is the First Home Grant Still Available in NZ?
No. The First Home Grant was discontinued in May 2024. If you’ve seen older articles, forum posts or even some outdated lender material referencing it, that information is no longer current. There’s no cash top-up from the government sitting alongside your KiwiSaver withdrawal anymore. What’s changed is the shape of the support, not whether support exists at all.
The takeaway: Stop planning around a grant that no longer exists. The two tools below are what’s actually on the table.
What Replaced the First Home Grant?
Two things carry the weight the Grant used to share. The first is your own KiwiSaver first home withdrawal, which was never affected by the Grant’s discontinuation and remains available if you’ve been contributing for at least three years. The second is the Kāinga Ora First Home Loan, a low-deposit mortgage that lets eligible buyers purchase with as little as 5% deposit, backed by a government guarantee to the lender rather than a cash payment to you. Used together, they can close a meaningful part of the deposit gap, just through a different mechanism than before.
The takeaway: No single replacement exists, but KiwiSaver plus the First Home Loan cover similar ground to what the Grant and KiwiSaver used to.
How Does the Kāinga Ora First Home Loan Work?
The First Home Loan isn’t a grant and isn’t free money. It’s a standard mortgage from a participating bank, with Kāinga Ora underwriting part of the risk so the bank can accept a smaller deposit than it normally would. Eligibility depends on your income, the property’s purchase price against regional price caps, and whether you’re an owner-occupier. Because the caps and income limits are reviewed periodically, the exact current figures are always worth confirming directly rather than relying on a number from an old article, including this one.
The takeaway: It’s a real path to a 5% deposit, but eligibility is specific to your income, the property, and your region. Confirm the current caps before you get attached to a property.
How Much of Your KiwiSaver Can You Withdraw?
If you’ve been contributing to KiwiSaver for at least three years, you can generally withdraw your full balance minus $1,000, which stays in the account to keep it open. This applies whether or not you use the First Home Loan alongside it, and it’s the part of the old Grant-plus-KiwiSaver combination that hasn’t changed. Your provider confirms your exact eligible amount, and the timing of your withdrawal request relative to your settlement date matters, so it’s worth starting that process early rather than leaving it until the week you need the funds.
The takeaway: Your KiwiSaver withdrawal is unaffected by the Grant’s discontinuation. It’s still one of the most useful tools you have.
So What Should First-Home Buyers Actually Do in 2026?
Start by working out your KiwiSaver withdrawal amount, since that’s the number you can pin down with the most confidence. From there, check whether the property and price range you’re looking at falls within your region’s First Home Loan caps, since that determines whether the 5%-deposit path is realistic for you or whether you’ll need a larger deposit through standard lending. The two tools solve different problems, one boosts your deposit, the other reduces how much deposit you need, so most buyers end up using some combination of both rather than relying on either alone.
| Tool | What It Actually Is | Key Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| KiwiSaver first home withdrawal | Your own contributions plus employer and any member tax credits | 3+ years contributing |
| Kāinga Ora First Home Loan | Low-deposit mortgage via a participating bank, government-backed | Income and regional price caps apply |
| First Home Grant | Discontinued May 2024. No longer available. | Not applicable |
The takeaway: There’s no single form that gives you everything at once. It’s a sequence: confirm your KiwiSaver amount, check the First Home Loan caps for your target area, then talk to a mortgage adviser about how they fit your actual income and situation.
What About People Who Were Counting on the Grant?
If you’d been saving with the Grant’s $5,000 or $10,000 in mind, it’s fair to feel like the ground shifted under you. That’s a genuine deposit gap that needs a genuine plan, not just a shrug. The realistic options are usually some combination of stretching your KiwiSaver contributions a little longer before you buy, widening your search to properties that fall within the First Home Loan’s price caps rather than just above them, or bringing in a family gift or guarantor if that’s available to you. None of these are as simple as a government top-up landing in your account, but they’re workable, and a mortgage adviser who deals with this daily can usually see a path faster than you can working it out alone.
The takeaway: A discontinued grant doesn’t mean a discontinued plan. It usually just means adjusting the timeline or the property search, not giving up on buying.
Where Do Self-Employed and Migrant Buyers Fit In?
The First Home Loan and KiwiSaver withdrawal rules apply the same way regardless of how you earn your income, but self-employed applicants typically need more documentation to prove serviceability, since banks lean on tax returns rather than a straightforward salary. New Zealand residents who’ve arrived more recently should check their KiwiSaver contribution history carefully, since the three-year rule is based on when you started contributing, not how long you’ve lived here. Neither group is excluded from either tool, but the paperwork looks different, and it’s worth flagging your situation early rather than assuming a standard application will cover it.
The takeaway: Self-employed and migrant buyers can use both tools, but the application usually needs a bit more groundwork before submission.
Bottom Line
The First Home Grant is gone, and no amount of searching will bring back a scheme that was discontinued in May 2024. What’s left is still genuinely useful: your KiwiSaver withdrawal and the Kāinga Ora First Home Loan, used together where you’re eligible. If you’re not sure where you stand on either, that’s exactly the kind of thing worth a proper conversation rather than another search. Jagdip’s First Home Buyer guide covers the process end to end, and the KiwiSaver calculator gives you a quick starting estimate before you talk to anyone.