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KiwiSaver Returns History NZ: Market Events Since 2007 and Where to Find Annual Returns

Updated

KiwiSaver launched in July 2007, close to the start of the Global Financial Crisis. Its history since then includes crashes, rapid recoveries, a pandemic and a rate-rise cycle. This page sets out the period-by-period story and where to find each fund’s published year-by-year returns. Current figures and comparison methods are in our other KiwiSaver performance guides.

Earlier versions of this page included a table of approximate industry-average annual returns by fund type since 2008. We couldn’t trace those figures to a published source (Sorted Smart Investor shows each fund’s own returns, not an industry average by calendar year), so we removed the table and the long-run averages calculated from it. Past returns do not guarantee future performance.

KiwiSaver Through the Major Market Events

2007 to 2009: Launch into the GFC

KiwiSaver launched in July 2007. Within 18 months, global share markets were in the Global Financial Crisis, and growth funds performed poorly. Members who kept contributing through the GFC were buying units at lower prices as markets recovered from 2009.

2009 to 2019: Bull market decade

Following the GFC recovery, global share markets had a long period of gains, with down years along the way such as the 2018 sell-off.

2020: COVID-19 crash and recovery

In March 2020, share markets fell sharply as the pandemic spread, then recovered quickly.

2021 to 2022: Highs, then a fall

The year to 31 March 2021 was a strong one for KiwiSaver, helped by the market recovery from the COVID-19 fall. In 2022, share and bond markets both fell, so funds of every type, including conservative funds, which hold more bonds, could have a weak year; your fund’s update shows its own result for the year to 31 March 2023.

2023 to 2026: Recovery

Share markets recovered from 2023. Over the 5 years to 30 June 2026, growth funds’ returns after fees and tax were well above conservative funds’: the dated figures by provider are in KiwiSaver fund returns.

Where to Find Year-by-Year Returns

Every KiwiSaver fund publishes a quarterly fund update with an annual return graph. Milford’s KiwiSaver fund updates, for example, show “the return after fund charges and tax each of the last 10 years ending 31 March”, next to the fund’s market index. To see a fund’s history:

  1. Find the latest fund update on your provider’s website (or the fund’s page on Sorted Smart Investor)
  2. Read the annual return graph: each bar is a year to 31 March, after fund charges and tax at the highest PIR
  3. Compare funds of the same type over the same years; a growth fund’s swings are not comparable with a conservative fund’s

The $1,000 Illustration

A member who invested $1,000 in July 2007 and made no further contributions, at constant illustrative rates (not actual returns):

Fund type Approx. value after 18 years
Growth (7% p.a. assumed) ~$3,380
Balanced (5.5% p.a. assumed) ~$2,620
Conservative (3.5% p.a. assumed) ~$1,860

Illustrative only, using assumed constant rates. Individual fund performance varies. Does not include additional contributions, the government contribution or employer contributions.

What the History Shows

1. Downturns have been followed by recoveries so far Growth funds recovered after the GFC and the 2020 crash, though the time it took varied, and past recoveries don’t guarantee future ones. Members who moved to a conservative fund after a fall did not share in the recovery that followed.

2. Growth funds have had larger swings Growth funds hold more shares than balanced and conservative funds, so their returns move more from year to year. That trade-off matters most for money that will be withdrawn soon.

3. Fees compound just like returns A fund returning 8% with 0.3% fees delivers 7.7% net. A fund returning 8% with 1.0% fees delivers 7.0% net. Over 18 years, that 0.7-point difference compounds to a meaningful gap.

4. The government contribution is based on your contributions, not fund returns The government contribution is worked out from what an eligible member pays in, not from fund returns, so a fall in fund value does not reduce it. Current rules are in the KiwiSaver government contribution.

Where to Find Current Returns Data

Current 5-year after-fee returns by fund type and provider are in KiwiSaver fund returns, and how to compare them fairly (same fund type, after fees, same period) is in the KiwiSaver fund performance comparison.