{"id":587509,"date":"2026-09-02T02:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587509\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:52:12","slug":"major-changes-to-kiwisaver-a-step-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/587509\/","title":{"rendered":"Major changes to KiwiSaver a step closer"},"content":{"rendered":"

KiwiSaver will become more accessible for farm workers wanting to use their savings to buy their first home <\/a>under legislation introduced this week.<\/p>\n

Up until now rural New Zealanders have often been unable to use the first-home withdrawal<\/a> because of a typical housing arrangement on the farm where they are working.<\/p>\n

This has limited farm workers because the KiwiSaver rules have required people to live in the home which they use the funds to buy. <\/p>\n

Finance Minister Nicola Willis has said the The KiwiSaver (First Home or Farm) Amendment Bill means farm workers paying into their KiwiSaver<\/a> and living in accommodation provided by their employer are no longer excluded from making a withdrawal.<\/p>\n

“If your job comes with a roof over your head, you should not be locked out of your own savings,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Willis said the initial legislation was not written with rural New Zealanders in mind.<\/p>\n

“That rule was written with a suburban street in mind, not a farm gate. Rural New Zealand has been wearing the cost of it, and we are fixing that.”<\/p>\n

The changes also provided help for first time farm buyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Current<\/p>\n

Current rules only allow people to use their KiwiSaver to purchase a first farm if it is brought in their own name. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

The change means the withdrawal can be used to purchase a farm through a company, trust or partnership, provided the KiwiSaver member has majority ownership and control over the commercial vehicle.<\/p>\n

Current rules only allow people to use their KiwiSaver to purchase a first farm if it is brought in their own name. <\/p>\n

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer said almost nobody buys a farm in their own name because it is often both a business and a home. <\/p>\n

“A young couple who have spent a decade milking someone else’s cows and saving hard have been blocked from their own KiwiSaver by a technicality about whose name is on the title. That is not fair, and it is not smart,” he said.<\/p>\n

Brewer said this is a way of “fixing the basics and building the future, so the people who work our land can own a piece of it.”<\/p>\n

The changes began as a member’s bill in the name of Rangit\u012bkei MP Suze Redmayne which was adopted by the Government. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KiwiSaver will become more accessible for farm workers wanting to use their savings to buy their first home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[219,14934,687,111,43,139,69,244],"class_list":["post-587509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-economy","tag-farming","tag-housing-and-infrastructure","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}