Loan scheme extension to aid first-home buyers

Lending limits for "Welcome Home" loans for first home buyers look set to increase next month, opening the scheme up to low-income home-buyers in parts of Auckland and Tauranga for the first time in several years.

Housing Minister Phil Heatley has told Parliament's social services select committee that the current $280,000 loan limit for the scheme could be raised by the Cabinet on August 3 to between $320,000 and $350,000.

The scheme requires a 15 per cent deposit for a loan above $200,000. In effect, this means the new loan limits would raise the maximum value of houses that could be financed through the scheme from $329,412 to between $376,470 and $411,765, provided the borrowers stump up the required deposits.

The new limit will still be well below the average house price across the Auckland region of $489,444 in the past three months.

But it will give access to the scheme to low-income earners buying homes in the lowest quarter of houses sold in Papakura, Tauranga, Waitakere and Manukau.

Quotable Value said the lowest quarter of houses sold in the last quarter of last year at prices of up to $297,000 in Papakura, $300,000 in Tauranga, $319,000 in Waitakere and $330,000 in Manukau.

To read the full NZ Herald article click here

Posted: 14 Jul 2009

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