First Home Grant and First Home Partner: current status
First Home Grant stopped accepting new applications in 2024; First Home Partner is fully subscribed and now supports its existing customers.
On this page
- First Home Grant
- New applications stopped on 22 May 2024Kāinga Ora, First Home Grant closure report
- First Home Partner
- Fully subscribed; existing customers supportedKāinga Ora, First Home Partner
- Partner application closure
- 29 September 2023Kāinga Ora, incoming minister briefing 2023
- First Home Loan
- A separate home-loan productKāinga Ora, home ownership schemes
First Home Grant closed to new applications
Kāinga Ora’s August 2024 weekly report states that it stopped accepting new First Home Grant applications on 22 May 2024. The report describes a later exemption window that also closed. Those transitional arrangements were for applications around the closure, rather than an ongoing grant offer for new buyers. The former scheme’s grant amounts and eligibility caps are therefore not presented here as benefits available to a new applicant today. Kāinga Ora, First Home Grant closure report (opens in a new tab).
Historical approvals are not a reopened scheme
The closure report describes handling pre-approvals and applications pending when the scheme closed. It records adjustments for customers whose original purchase did not proceed, within the expiry of their pre-approval. That is a historical processing arrangement, not evidence that new applications reopened. A page discussing old approvals can remain useful without making the grant available again. The distinction matters when an older home-buying article still mentions a grant. Kāinga Ora, First Home Grant closure report (opens in a new tab).
First Home Partner is fully subscribed
The current Kāinga Ora First Home Partner page states that the scheme is fully subscribed and that the page assists existing customers. It describes shared ownership administered by Kāinga Ora for buyers able to service repayments but lacking enough savings or deposit for financial pre-approval. Its current guidance focuses on becoming a full homeowner and existing shared-ownership arrangements, rather than inviting new buyers to submit applications. Kāinga Ora, First Home Partner (opens in a new tab).
When Partner applications stopped
Kāinga Ora’s 2023 incoming-minister briefing records that new First Home Partner applications closed on 29 September because funding was fully committed. This is the September 2023 closure described in that briefing. The current fully subscribed status is consistent with continued support for existing customers. Closure to new entrants does not mean that an existing customer’s shared-ownership agreement has ended or that Kāinga Ora’s share has automatically been repaid. Kāinga Ora, incoming minister briefing 2023 (opens in a new tab).
Other home-ownership products are distinct
Kāinga Ora’s home-ownership page continues to list First Home Loan, KiwiSaver first-home withdrawal and Kāinga Whenua alongside resources for home buyers. These are different products with their own conditions. First Home Loan concerns home-loan access; a KiwiSaver withdrawal uses eligible savings already held by a member. Neither is described here as a renamed First Home Grant or as a new opening of the fully subscribed First Home Partner scheme. Kāinga Ora, home ownership schemes (opens in a new tab).
What this status guide establishes
This guide records the schemes’ application status from primary Kāinga Ora material read on 4 October 2026 (New Zealand time). It does not determine eligibility for another product, give a lender’s approval or recommend a route into home ownership. The mortgage calculator can estimate repayments on entered borrowing, but cannot award a grant, approve a scheme application or determine a customer’s obligations under a shared-ownership agreement.