Money that Mainzeal Property & Construction owed to its staff, a trading bank and Inland Revenue has been largely repaid.

The head of Fletcher Buildings' Winstone Wallboards is defending its dominant New Zealand plasterboard position, as the company awaits a Commerce Commission ruling.

Construction workers are at Auckland University's Newmarket campus site, preparing former warehouses for the first students to move in from late July.

Positions for 16,000 people are available now and 200,000 jobs have been advertised since January on one of NZ's biggest employment websites.

The owners of properties in Auckland's leaky Chancery shopping complex have won $3.4 million for repairs, now about halfway through.

More than half of Auckland's residential land is to be rezoned for apartments and intensification to squeeze in a million extra people by 2040.

New Zealand's commercial construction sector has been nailed into the ground by the recession, industry chiefs say, and Mainzeal Property and Construction's receivership came after a string of others.

The collapse of Mainzeal Property and Construction will cost Auckland ratepayers millions to settle a leaky-building claim.

Giving building owners 10 years to strengthen earthquake-prone buildings would amount to an "execution order" for many heritage buildings, says the Auckland Council.

One of New Zealand's largest mechanical engineering firms has expanded its presence in the mining equipment sector through its acquisition of a North Island manufacturer.

The entrance of a European building products giant into the Christchurch rebuild market will increase competition in the industry.

Economic activity in Canterbury is gathering pace, according to the January edition of the ASB Bank's Cantometer.

Australian workers are being sought for a large Auckland building project beginning soon, outraging NZ First leader Winston Peters, who says Kiwis have been snubbed.

New Zealand's house building activity shrank in the first three months of the year as most new work was largely in non-residential construction.