Ex-rich-lister Jamie Peters entered into a finance agreement on a luxury car at a time when he was unable to pay debts when they fell due, the High Court heard today.

Three fully leased freehold units on the ground floor of a new, architecturally designed two storey building in Jervois Road in Herne Bay.

Auckland city's oldest surviving hotel building, the Fitzroy Hotel built in 1854-55 on the corner of Wakefield St and Lyndock St.

Almost $650,000 from the sale of a boat that Jamie Peters had personally used ended up in a bank account which the ex-rich-lister accessed during his bankruptcy.

Former rich-lister Jamie Peters has told the High Court he "barely survived" using $80,000 from a friend's bank account.

The building sector is expecting a rise in fortunes as the economy recovers and the Canterbury rebuild gets into full swing about 2016.

The house-building sector is experiencing its biggest surge in more than a decade as demand for new places.

Architects Jeff Fearon and Tim Hay of Fearon Hay have won NZ’s top award for architecture, from the NZ Institute of Architects for their work on the Imperial Buildings refurbishment and strengthening. Ross Healy of Phillimore Properties who owns the buildings had been more than impressed with the finished result. New Zealand Herald reporter Anne Gibson spoke with the winning team.

Controversial plans for a $100 million 27-level Dunedin hotel have been knocked back.

A historic Napier harbour property that survived a devastating earthquake and which now houses an award-winning cafe is for sale for the first time in 50 years.

A successful boutique fashion jewellery and accessories business occupying a prominent corner site at the main intersection in Napier's CBD is being marketed for sale.

The Government's pokies for convention centre deal cannot bind future governments to compensate SkyCity if the deal is revoked, leading constitutional lawyer Stephen Franks says.

Scarfie favourite, Dunedin's Captain Cook Tavern, could close by the middle of this month.

Sex trade entrepreneurs John and Michael Chow have opened a new downtown Auckland brothel, one in Wellington and are planning another in Auckland.

TSB Bank lifted annual profit 11 per cent as rural and commercial lending rose faster than its traditional sector in household mortgages.

A $2.3 million winery estate is for sale after being placed in receivership.

A luxury accommodation business set in 5822sq m of sub tropical gardens on the Coromandel Peninsula is being marketed for sale.

Hamilton's central business district is seeing a development surge in properties.

Auckland's 'frothy' housing market poses the biggest risk to the economy's strengthening recovery, the Institute of Economic Research says.

New Zealand chef Peter Gordon's dine restaurant in Auckland shuts this week so the area can be gutted and the SkyCity Grand Hotel's new hotel lobby bar can be relocated there.

Consultants have been paid $1.6 million for work on Auckland Council's Yard 37 marine precinct development.

Strong demand for vacant premises, particularly from owner-occupiers, is contributing to the fall in industrial property vacancy rates in Auckland.