New restrictions on bank home lending are leaving the market wide open to the non-bank lenders.

COMMENT: Policy changes are needed to create houses that are truly affordable before this generation permanently become "generation rent".

COMMENT: Investors have become scapegoats to divert attention from a council that is expensive to do business with and has lacked proactive policies.

Making investors stump up a deposit of nearly $400,000 for the average Auckland home is expected to dampen house price inflation by up to 5 per cent.

One of the more basic properties in Papakura is probably now also one of the cheapest.

Rents will go up if property investors nationwide are forced to stump-up a 40 per cent deposit, an investors' lobby group says.

Tough new rules on borrowing for investment properties have been outlined by the Reserve Bank - with banks told to take immediate action.

Labour and the Greens say the new lending rules won't be enough to slow rapid property price hikes.

Watch NZ Herald Focus: Liam Dann says the Reserve Bank will be criticised as a blunt and unwieldy weapon - but there's a need for action.

A Tauranga couple who lost their sea view after a real estate agent failed to tell them about a neighbour's plans will appeal.

Why are so many houses in Auckland empty when we are in the middle of a housing crisis?

Listings for stand-alone houses in popular Auckland city-fridge suburbs have plummeted as would-be sellers stay put.

A former market garden with a 1920s brick and tile home in Mangere sold at auction this week for $4.7 million - almost $3.5m over its council valuation.

COMMENT: Why are politicians of all colours so afraid? And whose interests are they protecting when they say such falls are "crazy"?

COMMENT: The Auckland housing market is planned chaos. We have Government intervention upon intervention.

Multimillionaire businessman and retailer Rod Duke of Briscoes fame is building a new Auckland mansion on a $12 million waterfront site.

COMMENT: Stephen Jennings' warning that "we are facing an iceberg" that deserves to shatter business complacency on housing.

COMMENT: Investing in instalments can have advantages over making a one-off deposit.

Since the earthquakes, the cost of building new homes in Canterbury has risen by nearly 40 per cent.

The demand for large homes in Christchurch is growing, fuelled by wealthy people choosing to move to the city from other parts of NZ and overseas.

COMMENT: Landlords must be feeling pretty unloved these days.

A Tauranga real estate agent who sold a house without revealing a stunning sea view would be partially blocked has been fined $8000.

Consumer confidence remains strong but in Auckland soaring house prices are hitting sentiment.

A new free residential property database will soon be expanded and more information added.

COMMENT: Since announcing the policy, Labour has been almost silent on what it's planning and instead got distracted by what National was doing, writes Claire Trevett.

SNEAK PEEK: Take a look inside Auckland's most expensive mansion of 2016.

A new free residential property data base has been launched and expansions plans will soon see new information added.

Frustrated would-be first-home buyers will get a hand up as the Government moves to lift house price limits for KiwiSaver subsidies and low-deposit loans.

COMMENT: It's not the "how-to" that's a problem. It's the Government's refusal to admit there is a crisis.

COMMENT: It's as though a bee smoker has been pointed at Wellington's most famous hive and its inhabitants have become dopey.