First Home Buyers · The guide
Buy well, not just fast.
Everything we tell first-home buyers in the room, out in the open and sorted by where you're at. Still saving, deposit ready, actively looking or offer in hand — start at your stage, and talk to an adviser when you're ready.
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Where are you at?
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Stage 1
Still saving
Building the deposit. KiwiSaver, savings habits, and the ways family can help.
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Stage 2
Deposit ready
You've got the money together. Now find your real number, not the calculator's.
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Stage 3
Actively looking
Open homes and listings. Pre-approval, due diligence, and buying without regret.
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Stage 4
Offer in hand
Signed or about to sign. Timing the finance, KiwiSaver withdrawal and settlement.
What the calculator can't tell you
Every bank website has a borrowing calculator. Type in your income and deposit, and it hands you a number. That number is a starting point, not your number.
Four things it leaves out
- It's one bank's view, not five. The same couple can be offered meaningfully different amounts by different lenders.
- It guesses your expenses. A bank benchmarks them. Lenders apply a minimum living-cost figure for your household, then check your statements.
- It ignores your card limits. A bank counts them fully drawn. A $15,000 limit is $15,000 of debt, used or not. Buy-now-pay-later and car finance count too.
- It isn't testing you at ~7%. Your lender will. Banks assess you at a servicing test rate, around 7% at the majors, not the rate you'll pay.
Could you afford a bad year in it?
Don't just ask whether you can afford the house. Ask whether you could afford the worst twelve months of owning it.
A roof that needs doing. One income stopping for a while. A fixed rate rolling off higher than you planned. Those years arrive for most owners eventually, and the buyers who cope are the ones who set the loan up expecting them.
Run the numbers for a starting point, then use the stages below to understand what moves them.
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Run your numbers
Get a starting point in two minutes
Our online borrowing calculator uses the current major-bank test rate and the debt-to-income caps, so it's closer to a bank's answer than most. It's still one view. Your real range comes from an adviser checking your numbers across lenders.
Stage 1 · Still saving: getting the deposit together
Your deposit is what gets your foot in the door with a bank. It can come from savings, KiwiSaver, investments, bonuses or a gift from family, and most first-home deposits are a mix.
How much do you need?
Aim for 20% of the purchase price on an existing home. New builds often need only 10%.
Banks can lend above 80% to a limited share of borrowers, so smaller deposits do get approved. Expect a low-equity premium or a higher rate attached. The bigger the deposit, the better the rate and the fewer the conditions.
Your KiwiSaver is probably your biggest lever
If you've been in KiwiSaver for at least three years, you can usually withdraw everything except $1,000 towards a first home. Daniel and Rory walk through every deposit pathway in our deposit-builder podcast episode.
Three things worth doing now:
- Check your contribution rate. The default employee rate rises from 3% to 3.5% in April 2026 and to 4% in April 2028. Going higher while you save means more employer match and tax-efficient growth.
- Collect the government contribution. Contribute at least $1,042.86 in the year to 30 June and the government adds 25 cents per dollar, up to $260.72. It halved from 1 July 2025 and stops above $180,000 income, but it's still free money.
- Check your fund. Buying in one to three years? A conservative fund protects the balance from a bad quarter right before you need it. Seven years or more away? Growth funds have room to ride out the dips.
Still in a default fund? Our KiwiSaver planning service is free.
Savings that lenders like to see
Set up a separate deposit account with an automatic transfer each payday. Banks read your last three months of statements, and a steady monthly transfer is the clearest evidence that you'll handle a repayment.
Ways family can help
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Gifting
Family can gift money towards your deposit. The lender will usually want a signed gifting certificate confirming the amount and that it doesn't need to be repaid.
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Guarantor
A family member offers their own home as extra security. If you default, they can be liable for the shortfall, so we always recommend guarantors take independent legal advice first.
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Buying together
Siblings, friends and couples increasingly buy as a group. Two incomes and two deposits change the maths, but the ownership agreement matters as much as the mortgage.
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Kāinga Ora First Home Loan
Selected lenders offer 5% deposit loans underwritten by Kāinga Ora for buyers under the scheme's income caps. It suits some buyers well, and we'll tell you if you're one of them.
Next step at this stage: get your KiwiSaver working harder with a free KiwiSaver review, or grab the First Home & Mortgage Cheatsheet to map your deposit timeline.
Planning to use KiwiSaver? Contact your provider early. Withdrawals take at least 10 working days after your application, and delays happen.
Stage 2 · Deposit ready: knowing your real number
Once the deposit is together, the question changes. It's no longer "how much have I got?" but "how much will a bank actually lend me?"
The four things that decide it
Income. Banks use your after-tax income, and they treat overtime, bonuses, commission and second jobs differently from base salary. Some count 100% of a bonus, some count 80%, some want two years of history.
Expenses. Every bank applies a minimum living-cost benchmark for your household size, then checks your statements. Three months of tidy statements beat three months of explanations.
Debts. This is what quietly shrinks your range. A $400-a-month car loan can take well over $50,000 off what you can borrow, and card limits count as if fully drawn. Paying these down first is usually the fastest way to lift your borrowing power.
The test rate. Banks assess your repayments at a servicing test rate, around 7% at the majors right now, even though the rate you'd pay is in the fives. That is the bank stress-testing you.
The debt-to-income cap
Since mid-2024 the Reserve Bank has capped most owner-occupier lending at six times gross household income. Earn $120,000 between you and the cap is $720,000.
Banks can go above that for a limited share of borrowers, and new builds and First Home Loans are largely exempt. In practice, most first-home buyers hit the servicing test before they hit the cap.
The three-month clean-up
Before you apply: no unarranged overdrafts, no missed payments, no new debt, no gambling transactions, and a break from big one-off purchases.
Check your credit score and clear up anything unexpected. Lenders read your statements as a character reference.
Why "approved" isn't the same as "affordable"
A bank approves you against its test rate and its expense benchmark. It doesn't know you want to start a family in two years, or that your partner's contract ends in March.
A good first-home session works out the number you can live with, which is sometimes lower than the number you can get. If comparing yourself to other buyers is what's holding you back, stop comparing, start owning is the episode for you.
Next step at this stage: a mortgage pre-approval turns your range into a number you can make offers with. Or run the numbers for a starting point.
What happens in your free 15-minute first-home session
A short call with a licensed adviser, on the phone or video. No prep needed. Here's what we actually do.
Stress-test your repayments
Against a higher rate, not just today's. You'll see what the loan costs if your fixed rate rolls off higher than planned.
Look at one income for a period
Parental leave, a redundancy, a gap between contracts. We model what happens to the repayments and how long the buffer lasts.
Build in the buffer and flexibility
Before you commit, not after. Structure, offset, revolving credit and a cash buffer that survives a bad year.
Agree the next step
If it makes sense, we book a strategy session and you leave that with a written plan you can hold yourself to.
Worth doing if you've got your deposit and you'd rather buy well than buy fast.
Free. No obligation. About 15 minutes.
Stage 3 · Actively looking: buying well
This is where the expensive mistakes happen, usually in the last two weeks before an offer. A few things we tell every buyer at this stage.
Get pre-approved before you fall in love with something
A pre-approval is a lender's conditional yes, usually valid for around three months. It tells you your ceiling, tells the agent you're serious, and lets you move quickly when the right place comes up.
It isn't unconditional. The property still has to stack up. Our pre-approval service is free.
The agent works for the seller
Friendly, helpful, and paid by the vendor. Everything an agent tells you about "other interest" and "what it'll go for" is sales information.
Decide your walk-away number before the open home, not in the car park. Agent Alex Martelli explains how the game really works in whose agent are they anyway?
Can you actually insure it?
Ask before you go unconditional, not after. Cladding, flood zones, slips and older wiring can make a property hard or expensive to insure, and a bank won't settle on a home it can't insure.
Due diligence that pays for itself
A builder's report, a LIM, and a lawyer who reads the title. Cross-lease, leasehold, unit-title and body-corporate properties each carry their own questions, and a cheap price often has a reason.
Buying at auction
Auctions are unconditional, so all the checks happen before the day. Your KiwiSaver withdrawal can't form part of an auction deposit. Talk to us before you bid and we'll set the finance up so you can.
Cashback and the clawback
Most banks offer a cash contribution on a new mortgage, often around 1% of the loan. It comes with a two-to-three-year commitment. Leave early and you repay it. We compare cashback alongside rate, not instead of it.
Structure: getting the loan set up right
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Fixed
Certainty for six months to five years. Break fees if you change early.
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Floating
Moves with the market. Repay extra without penalty.
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Split terms
Two or three fixed terms, so only part of the loan refixes at once. Smooths out rate changes.
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Revolving credit
Part of the loan as a big overdraft. Interest only on what's drawn. Powerful for paying down faster, risky if you're prone to spending.
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Offset
Savings linked to the loan, so you pay interest only on the difference. A tidy home for the buffer.
Next step at this stage: book a pre-approval session. Already signed a sale and purchase agreement? Jump to Quick Purchase Support.
Stage 4 · Offer in hand: from signed to settled
Conditions and timing
If you're using KiwiSaver, allow a 15-working-day finance condition and a five-to-six-week settlement so the withdrawal clears in time. Your lawyer applies to your KiwiSaver provider. It doesn't happen automatically.
Finance approval
Your pre-approval becomes a full approval once the bank has the sale and purchase agreement, a valuation if required, and updated payslips.
Don't change jobs, take on new debt or make large unusual purchases between offer and settlement.
Insurance in place
Your bank needs a certificate of insurance before it will settle. We can arrange cover to start on settlement day through our insurance team.
The first year
Keep the buffer. Your first fixed term ends sooner than you think, and that first refix is where structure gets tuned to how you actually live.
From there, an annual check-up keeps the loan working. Our home owners guide picks up where this one ends.
Next step at this stage: Quick Purchase Support gets the finance across the line on a signed agreement.
First-home answers in under a minute
Short clips from our advisers on the questions we hear most, plus three full podcast episodes for first-home buyers: how Jack went from Uber Eats to two properties, whose side the agent is really on, and stop comparing, start owning.
How much do you need for a first home in NZ?
Video 1 of 12First-home questions, answered
Aim for 20% of the purchase price on an existing home. Banks can lend to a limited share of borrowers with less than 20%, usually with a low-equity premium, and new builds often need only 10%. Kāinga Ora First Home Loans allow 5% for buyers under the scheme's income caps.
Usually yes, if you've been a member for at least three years and you'll live in the home. You can withdraw everything except $1,000. Apply through your lawyer, allow at least 10 working days, and note the withdrawal can't be used as an auction deposit.
As a ceiling, most owner-occupier lending is capped at six times gross household income. In practice the bank's servicing test usually bites first: your after-tax income, minus benchmarked living costs and any debt repayments, assessed at a test rate around 7%. Use our online borrowing calculator for an estimate, then talk to an adviser for your real range across lenders.
The interest rate a bank uses to check you could still afford the mortgage if rates rose. It's typically a couple of percent above the rate you'd actually pay, around 7% at the major banks in 2026. A higher test rate means you can borrow less.
Usually around three months, and most lenders will renew it with updated payslips and statements. It stays conditional on the property stacking up, so a valuation or a problem with the title can still change the answer.
No, but it helps. Under 20% you'll generally pay a low-equity premium or a higher rate and face tighter conditions, and the bank has less room to say yes. If you're close, a family gift, a guarantor or a short delay to build the deposit can be worth more than a smaller deposit now.
Yes, more than most people expect. Repayments on car loans, personal loans and buy-now-pay-later come straight off what you can service, and credit card limits count as if they're fully drawn. Reducing limits and clearing short-term debt before you apply is the fastest way to lift your borrowing power.
Nothing for you. Lenders pay us when a loan settles, and you're never obliged to proceed. You get one adviser comparing 20+ lenders instead of one bank's view.
Ready to find your real number?
A free 15-minute chat with a licensed adviser. No prep, no obligation.
Prefer to run your own numbers first? Run the numbers with the online calculators, or download the First Home & Mortgage Cheatsheet and estimate at your own pace. Then book when you're ready.
General information only. Lending criteria, test rates, KiwiSaver rules and government schemes change; figures on this page were checked in September 2026. This page does not constitute financial advice. Before making decisions, talk to a licensed financial adviser.