KiwiSaver Changes Welcomed by Young Farmers

The change announced last week will remove barriers for on farm and rural workers from using their KiwiSaver to buy their first homes.

Previous rules prevented many farmers from buying their first home, because KiwiSaver required buyers to live in the house for the next six months.

Te Puke Young Farmers Chair and Wai/Bop Regional Convenor Shanice Young said these requirements meant KiwiSaver was not an option for farmers buying their first homes.

"It was either the fact of us taking a step away from farming for six months to live in this house or I know of people that have brought (property using KiwiSaver) and the husband has stayed at the farming job while the family have gone and lived in that house for six months."

Many families were split up for long periods because of this and single farmers did not have the option to leave work for six months.

Young said the rule changes have been warmly received. 

"Now the fact of that we can use our KiwiSaver, it's like right, how can we start investing and building our future?"

Many farmers are now looking at how they can set themselves up instead of "just building a KiwiSaver for no reason," she said.  

Young hopes it will encourage young families to stay in the industry instead of "going to city jobs to build their life and use their KiwiSaver,"as they had to previously. 

Independent land ownership could also be achieved earlier, benefiting the industry. 

"They will be able to go into ownership by themselves using their KiwiSaver and taking that stepping stone even if it's a small rural property." 

"We can look at building ourselves the equity and buying a first home outside of farming or use it to buy-in in farms and stuff like that, which will also benefit the industry long term so it won't die down," Young said. 

These changes will positively impact the Eastern Bay, Young said.

Not only will it keep people in the industry and assist with farm ownership earlier in farmer's careers, Young said it will also benefit those whose contracts are terminated or decide to leave the Dairy industry. 

Under the previous rules, when leaving farm provided housing, many did not have another place to go to. 

"It's the less stress because we know that the housing crisis is quite bad at the moment so it's less stress on the farmer when they've either lost their job or have to leave for medical reasons." 

Having a house off farm to go to straight away "would take off the pressure from them feeling like they're alone and nowhere to go." 

Young believes these changes show farmers their hard work is "valued and their futures matter."

She hopes the changes will retain the workforce in the Eastern Bay because younger farmers will see "our people actually succeed and not be held back because they're farmers."

"I'm really excited." 

The legislation for the changes will be introduced to Parliament later this year.