Exclusive: KiwiBuild income caps to be introduced

Newshub can reveal the Government will announce income caps as part of its KiwiBuild eligibility criteria.

The Government is keeping everything under wraps until its big reveal on Wednesday when Housing Minister Phil Twyford makes the official announcement about who will be allowed to buy the 100,000 affordable homes.

But a source has confirmed to Newshub the Government will introduce income caps, despite the Labour Party originally promising there would be none. The minister refused to confirm or deny.

"Cabinet's made the decisions and we'll be announcing tomorrow," the minister told Newshub.

The only hint as to how high that income cap would be set was a comment from the minister.

"Even young families on professional incomes find it very difficult in, say, markets like Auckland and Queenstown to buy their own home."

The homes will be available to first-home buyers, and what the Government's labelled "second chancers" - that's people who perhaps owned a house, separated from a partner and were left with nothing.

The Housing Minister confirmed to Newshub that buyers will be able to use another Government leg-up towards their KiwiBuild homes - the HomeStart grant, which is up to $20,000 more towards your first home.

"There's no reason why you can't and I expect many people would," Mr Twyford told Newshub.

One of the likely restrictions placed on home buyers will be a rule they must live in the house for a certain period and can't sell it within a certain period. The minister remains tight-lipped on that.

But it could look something like Labour's election policy, which dictated if you sold the house within five years you'd have to hand over any money you make to the Government.

"To avoid buyers reaping windfall gains, a condition of sale will require them to hand back any capital gain if sold on within five years," the policy says.

Newshub.