A $21,404.80 unpaid rates bill is owed on an Arch Hill house but one of its owners is refusing to pay due to a property dispute.

Entry-level Auckland home buyers are opting for older houses on smaller sections in need of considerable DIY work.

Struggling to buy their first home in Auckland, with twins and another baby on the way, James and Barbara Ryan "did the only thing that made sense", and left.

Nearly one in five Auckland first-home buyers now spends more than six years saving for a deposit, delaying the home ownership dream while prices rise.

Council valuations are out of date, with homes selling in Auckland's market on average for more than 15 per cent above their figure of six months ago.

In the first of a three-part series, Herald property reporter Lane Nichols looks at how the previous generation’s quarter-acre dream is fast becoming unattainable.

Catherine Smith was 25 when she bought her first home in 1982 - a three-bedroom bay-fronted Ponsonby villa for $55,000.

Mortgage payments for Auckland's most affordable homes are costing first-time buyers nearly half their take-home pay each week, a new report shows.

Auckland Council is chasing unpaid rates of $300,595.02 on eight properties and court action has begun to result in forced sales.

A sprawling lakefront property where former Takapuna mayor Fred Thomas and his wife, Mary, raised their nine children is for sale by tender.

The High Court has ruled that an Auckland North Shore property at 2/57 Northboro Rd, Belmont must be sold because of $59,393 unpaid rates.

If the likes of the Salvation Army cannot afford to buy cut-price state houses, it seems improbable that any other social services agency is in a position to do so.

One in five Auckland properties have sold under the hammer for more than $1 million and only two of 55 properties were sold for less than $500,000 last week.

This week, Finance Minister Bill English was dealt a blow by the Salvation Army, which rejected his suggestion it buy Housing New Zealand stock.

A set of four run-down pensioner flats have been spruced up in a $350,000 renovation which is expected to attract first-home buyers.

A real estate agent who left a vendor liable for a second commission while pocketing a $47,500 fee from a buyer has been found guilty of misconduct.

Three houses being renovated on TV One's Our First Home won't go anywhere near the $1 million mark each when they are auctioned next month, an investment expert believes.

Waiheke's biggest landowner is challenging zoning classifications on parts of its holdings on the island's eastern tip in the Stony Batter Historic Reserve war fortifications vicinity.

One of Auckland's most spectacular penthouses - but one with a litigious history - is for sale 16 months after the luxury pad was last bought, fetching $4.7 million.

Facing huge bills to fix their leaky houses, more homeowners have joined the new $100 million-plus leaky home class action.

Councils may soon face private sector competition for issuing building consents again, as part of a Government drive to make housing more affordable.

A two-bedroom entry-level home in Mt Wellington drew an unprecedented 21 offers as desperate first-home buyers battle to break into Auckland's heated property market.

New Zealand has zero affordable housing markets, according to the '11th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey'.

A resurgence in property prices means LVR "speed limits" are likely to stay in place, Standard & Poor's says in a report that predicts banks will continue to post strong earnings growth....

Auckland rental real estate remains NZ's most expensive but the tight Christchurch situation appears to be improving as more places come on the market.

Shopping around for a mortgage could save New Zealanders up to $28,500 over the lifetime of a loan, according to a new survey of home lending.