Progressive home ownership for individuals, families and whānau
Progressive home ownership (PHO) can help people into their own homes through arrangements like rent-to-buy, shared ownership or leasehold schemes. The PHO fund offers approved providers a loan to partner with individuals, families and whānau in a rent-to-buy, shared equity or leasehold arrangement.
Who the PHO fund helps
The PHO fund can help:
- lower-to-median income households who are unlikely to be able to buy a home without a reasonable level of financial and non-financial support
- first-home buyers who can service a mortgage but don’t have a deposit
- households that are at or above median incomes but don’t earn enough to service a low-deposit home loan at current house prices.
It aims to address housing affordability for three priority groups:
- Māori
- Pacific peoples, and
- families with children.
Eligibility
Applicants must:
- be legally able to buy a home in New Zealand (or be married to, or in a civil union or de facto partnership with someone who is legally able to buy a home in New Zealand)
- have a household income before tax of no more than $130,000 (except for multi-generational households, who can earn more)
- be a first homebuyer or a second chancer (someone who has owned a home before but is back in the same financial situation as a first time buyer e.g. due to a divorce).
Applicants must also commit to living in the house as their main place of residence for at least three years i.e. they’re not buying it as an investment property.
As well as this general eligibility criteria, PHO providers can also apply their own criteria.
How to buy a home through the PHO Fund
There are a two ways for individuals and whānau to buy a home through the PHO Fund:
- through First Home Partner, a shared-ownership scheme run by Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities.
- through an approved PHO provider.
First Home Partner with Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities
First Home Partner is a new shared ownership scheme for first home buyers who can service a standard mortgage but don’t have a big enough deposit or don’t qualify for a big enough home loan to buy a place on their own.
With First Home Partner, Kāinga Ora takes an equity share in a house, which the household buys out over time.
Unlike other PHO schemes, where providers will match applicants to homes, with First Home Partner, applicants must find a suitable home themselves.
Find out more about eligibility for First Home Partner and how to apply(external link)
Approved PHO providers
We have granted loan funding to the following providers for their PHO programmes:
Auckland
Bay of Plenty
- Doing Good Foundation(external link)
- Manawa PHO Ltd(external link)
- Habitat for Humanity(external link)