Earn high returns on your first home savings and up to $10,000 Deposit Credits. Open an account and you’ll unlock $500 of matching credits directly towards your future deposit.*
Sign up to find out your borrowing power and fast track to your first home.
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Choose from a selection of Accelerator mixes to grow your deposit. Available to Aera members who are saving for their first home. Rates shown are targeted rates and may change.
Please click here to review the full Accelerator Account disclaimer to understand how this product works and its associated risks.
START UNLOCKING CREDITS NOW
Unlock up to $10,000 in credits in your account by improving your savings behaviour and reaching key milestones towards your first home.
When you use Aera services to help you with insurance, lending or purchasing a new home, eligible credits become available to go towards your first home deposit. How do we do this? By sharing future commission and fees with our members, we can get Kiwis just like you into first homes faster.
Deposit Credits are currently in a beta phase and are applied monthly based on behaviour. You may see your current unlocked balance within the Aera app
“Locked” credit balances start at $10,000 and are “unlocked” along your savings journey when you complete eligible milestones; achieve engagement or savings behaviour goals as deemed by Aera from time to time; and/or when you use specified Aera services
Any unlocked credit balance can only be used towards your first home deposit and has no other value.
Credits can only be redeemed as cash to put towards a first home deposit at the point of purchase and only when you use Aera’s services to complete that first home purchase. Examples of such services include Aera facilitating the best mortgage, insurances or purchase of a brand new home for you. The more of Aera’s services you use, the higher the amount of credits you may be eligible to redeem for your deposit, up to $10,000.
Click here for the full set of Deposit Credit Terms.
Timeline assumes the couple commences saving for a deposit and compares Aera's on-call Deposit Accelerator account rate (5.75%) with generally available on-call savings rates as at February 2024.
House purchase price saving assumes that by purchasing a property sooner, the price will have been subject to lower price growth over time. This calculation is based on the future purchase price growth range based on the historical 30 year compound growth rate of 6.8% (REINZ).
Target property starting price assumed to be March 2023 REINZ median Auckland house price ($1,000,600).
Sarah and David are assumed to earn $150,000, approximately the average household Auckland income ($153,000 as at March 2023, Corelogic/Infometrics).
Sarah and David are assumed to contribute 6% of gross salary to Kiwisaver, compounding 5% per annum gross and contribute a monthly deposit savings rate of approx 15% of gross income ($1875 per month).
Past performance of house price appreciation is not indicative of future performance. House price valuations may go up as well as down.
Sign-Up Credit unlock: you unlock a credit amount equal to the amount of your first deposit, up to $500.
Direct Deposit unlock: Automatic payment must be at least monthly in three consecutive months.
6 Months Milestone unlock: 6 month credit requires 6x monthly deposits of an average at least $1000 a month.
Our Accelerator accounts let you purchase bundles of Underlying Assets which can include asset types like corporate bonds or retail managed funds. These are publicly available assets that you can access directly if you so choose. Using an Accelerator account to make a purchase has the same risks as buying those same underlying assets through any other method.
This means there is no guarantee that the value of any Underlying Asset you buy will increase, and you may lose the money you start with. Aera does not provide any financial advice or recommendations in relation to your choice of any Accelerator account. You should seek independent legal, financial, taxation and other advice when considering the use of an Accelerator account and whether it it suitable for your needs.
Our full terms are available here and are to be read in conjunction with the product disclosures shown when opening an account.
The Overnight Deposit Accelerator is perfect for when you need fast access to your funds. With a 1 day notice period, your funds are never out of reach.
The underlying assets in the Overnight account consist of cash at registered New Zealand banks and cash equivalents (short-term Government and institutional bonds).
Aera’s Overnight is a mix of cash held at a registered New Zealand Bank (10%) and a mix of Cash Funds (90%) (”Underlying Assets”).
The Underlying Assets are held by Aera 22 Nominee Limited as bare trustee on behalf of you, the customer.
When you transfer money into Aera Overnight you will automatically be allocated units of the Underlying Assets. You do not need to do anything further to start generating a return.
Aera Overnight has a notice period that is advised to you at the time of opening the account.
This means that there will be a delay between when you advise us to transfer out of the Underlying Assets to your Everyday account and the time that your money is available to you. The Notice Period is intended to cover expected bank and payment processing times however any unexpected delays due to reasons outside of Aera’s reasonable control will be advised to you as soon as practicable.
The Targeted Daily Rate is per annum variable rate that may go up or down depending on the performance of the Underlying Assets. The rate applicable for each day will be clearly shown on the relevant Aera Overnight page linked from your home screen, and final interest amounts will be deposited to your account daily.
Thirty is great for when you’re ready to commit funds for slightly longer and roll them over. With a 30 days notice period, your funds can be stowed away earning higher interest but still close at hand.
The underlying assets in a Thirty account consist of a mix of cash and short-dated bonds. When a large institution or government entity wants to borrow funds they often issue a bond. These entities are responsible for repaying those bonds over time as well as paying out a return which can be higher than what you might get from cash in a bank account.
Aera makes putting your cash to work through a mix of these types of assets easier by breaking down this complexity into a daily return. This gives you the benefit of achieving a potentially higher return when compared to having your funds just sitting in a bank account.
Aera’s Thirty accelerator is a portfolio of cash (20%) and short-dated bonds issued by Infratil Limited IFTHC 12/29 (40%) and Fletcher Building Limited FBI190 03/25 (40%), (”Underlying Assets”).
The Underlying Assets are held by Aera 22 Nominee Limited as bare trustee on behalf of you, the customer.
When you transfer money into Aera Thirty you will automatically be allocated Underlying Assets. You do not need to do anything further to start generating a return.
Aera Thirty has a notice period that is advised to you at the time of opening the account.
This means that there will be a delay between when you advise us to transfer out of the Underlying Assets to your Everyday account and the time that your money is available to you. The Notice Period is intended to cover expected bank and payment processing times however any unexpected delays due to reasons outside of Aera’s reasonable control will be advised to you as soon as practicable.
The Targeted Daily Rate is a variable per annum rate that may go up or down depending on the performance of the Underlying Assets. The rate applicable for each day will be clearly shown on the relevant Aera Thirty page linked from your home screen, and final interest amounts will be deposited to your account daily.
Three is great for when you’re ready to commit funds for slightly longer and roll them over. With a 3 day notice period, your funds can be stowed away earning a higher return but still close at hand.
The underlying assets in a Three account are a mix of managed funds.
Ninety
Ninety is great for when you’re ready to commit funds for slightly longer and roll them over. With a 90 days notice period, your funds can be stowed away earning a higher return but still close at hand.
The underlying assets in a Ninety account are a mix of cash and short-dated bonds.
Aera makes putting your cash to work through a mix of these types of assets easier by breaking down this complexity into a daily return. This gives you the benefit of achieving a potentially higher return when compared to having your funds just sitting in a bank account.
What is a Bond?
When a large institution or government entity wants to borrow funds they often issue a bond. These entities are responsible for repaying those bonds back over time. They pay out a return to the bond holder in exchange for taking on their borrowing, the return which can be higher than what you might get from cash in a bank account.
Aera is not a registered bank, we are a savings app to help supercharge your first home dream. Created for first home savers on a mission to accelerate their first home deposit timeline, our Accelerators can give you some of the best rates and flexibility in the market.
Add funds into assets that can provide better results than leaving money in standard savings products.
We facilitate access to leading lenders, insurers and home builders all in one place
Up to $10,000 towards your deposit becomes available when you use Aera services to secure your first home.
Today, the median Auckland home requires a deposit of around $200,000*, which can take more than 10 years for the average Aucklander to save.
As you save for that deposit, prices continue to increase, taking longer to reach your target. First home buyers without a leg-up from the ‘bank of mum and dad’ have the toughest challenge.
Securely held funds
Your funds are securely held in a trust with major New Zealand registered banks and financial custodians.
Protection and Security
Aera is built on banking software powering 15 million customers worldwide. Full card control, pin changes and card locking in-app for your member's Visa card.
Leading wealth managers
We’ve partnered with leading institutions who oversee billions of dollars for the wealthy, to give you access to better rates.
FAQs
Through our savings products, Aera lets members add funds into assets that provide different returns than leaving their money in a standard savings accounts. Things like government or bank bonds, managed funds and wholesale cash accounts can provide higher returns than you may ordinarily get.
Aera is not a registered bank. We are a financial services company that exists to help members get into their own homes, faster. For our savings products we use similar tools as wealth management firms but we’re on a mission to pass on as much of the returns as possible to you.
We handhold your journey into your first home from start to finish, facilitating the insurance, mortgage and real estate transactions. We support you along the way and share commissions with you from Aera services that you choose to use, which you can unlock and put towards your deposit.
When you receive financial advice through an Aera affiliated financial advisor they are registered and qualified to give this advice. Advice will always include a disclosure statement which sets out the scope of advice and appropriate information on their qualifications.
Aera Accelerator™ savings accounts are not considered financial products where a licence is required.
We are however regulated in accordance with NZ laws, and are a registered financial services provider in NZ (FSP1003388 and FSP1003389 on the NZ Financial Services Provider Register) under the New Zealand Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008.
When you load funds into your Aera account or Accelerator™ accounts they are held on trust for you by Aera 22 Nominee Limited (the “Trustee”). “On trust” means that the funds are separate from Aera and can only be used as directed by you. The funds are held in major New Zealand bank accounts and financial institutions depending on the Accelerator options you select.
You can only redeem credits when you ultimately use Aera’s services to complete your first home purchase. For example, Aera facilitating the best mortgage, insurances or purchase of a brand new home for you. The more of Aera’s services you use, the more credits you may be eligible to redeem.
You “unlock” credits along your savings journey, and whatever credit balance you have unlocked and are eligible to redeem can only be used towards your first home deposit and has no other value.
Deposit Credits do not expire as long as you are an active saver and member of Aera, steadily working towards your first home goal. Any unlocked credits have no value other than contributing to your first home deposit at the point of purchase so long as you have utilised the relevant Aera services and all terms and conditions are met.
They may be deemed inactive if you stop saving with us for a period of three months, however may be reactivated again just by starting your savings again and hitting milestones again.
