change<\/a> to KiwiSaver to allow it to be used to help purchase a first home or farm is a much-needed stepping stone on the way to farm ownership, farmers say.<\/p>\nThe technical change to the KiwiSaver Act means farm staff in service tenancies (living on the farm) will soon be able to use KiwiSaver to purchase a house without immediately moving in.<\/p>\n
Morrinsville sharemilker Danielle Hovmand said she was very pleased with the announcement, after challenging the government several times to deliver on the commitment it made in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt levels up the playing field for all New Zealanders and it\u2019s great to see that it\u2019s also included that it can be used for a land or farm purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other farmers she had spoken to had echoed her sentiments, she said.<\/p>\n
The change will allow farmers to move forward financially and at a later stage put their equity back into the ag sector in a possible farm purchase.<\/p>\n
It gives young farmers further options in getting on the farm ownership ladder, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real challenge for young people to get into farm ownership and this improves that access to a bit of extra capital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hovmand said she is also pushing for it to include herd purchasing, but the announcement is a great start.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re seeing high cow prices, which is quite limiting for young people to get into herd ownership.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mid Canterbury dairy farm manager Jack Taggart said the law change will be a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at buying a house at the moment and finding that to be a challenge. There\u2019s a significant amount of money sitting in my KiwiSaver and in a few years\u2019 time when I want to go sharemilking or into an equity partnership, that money will be very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
A farmer under 30 with KiwiSaver is likely to have around $50,000-$60,000 in their KiwiSaver. While that is not enough to purchase a majority share in a farm it is a great option as a first small step, he said.<\/p>\n
Hypothetically, Taggart said, he could use it to buy a home and then in the near future either sell that home or borrow against it to purchase a herd.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither way, having that access to KiwiSaver definitely gets me on the way to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also supported the argument of extending the criteria to include herds \u2013 but recognised it would be a slippery slope because, in order to be fair, it should include farm machinery for arable farmers or tradeable stock for red meat farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut being able to own a herd of cows using your KiwiSaver is far more achievable than owning a part of the farm and the returns on owning a herd of cows are typically much greater than owning a farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was also pleased the law change was inclusive and aimed at assisting other professions that live rurally, such as doctors and police officers.<\/p>\n
Legislation giving effect to the changes will be introduced in Parliament in the middle of the year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading Time: 2 minutes The government\u2019s change to KiwiSaver to allow it to be used to help purchase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":["post-325981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}