Diminishing KiwiSaver balances tip up first home buyers

Mortgage brokers say they are hearing from many first-home buyers wondering what to do about the slump in their KiwiSaver balances caused by US President Donald Trump's tariff war.

At the beginning of the month Trump declared a 10% baseline tax on imports across the board from April 5 plus enormous taxes on China and other countries deemed to be in a trade imbalance with the US.

It sent share markets globally into a freefall and created extraordinary volatility and uncertainty in bond, equity and currency markets.

Whangarei-based Key Mortgages Jeremy Andrews says some first home buyers who were on the edge of the deposit they required to buy a house got tipped up because their KiwiSaver balances slid backwards.