![Nats in push to woo first-home buyers](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=795)
Nats in push to woo first-home buyers
National is promising grants for first-home buyers on modest incomes will be doubled - to up to $20k for a couple buying a newly built home - if it is re-elected next month.
National is promising grants for first-home buyers on modest incomes will be doubled - to up to $20k for a couple buying a newly built home - if it is re-elected next month.
New Zealand First dismissed National’s first-home buyer policy – but also took a swing at Labour for being a party for “gays, lesbians and the loony intelligent left”.
Prime Minister John Key has kicked off National's election campaign in South Auckland with a boost to Government assistance for low and middle income first-time buyers.
Homeowners are often portrayed as millionaires-in-waiting, but investing in property is not easy, writes Andrew Bruce.
Some homeowners will be hoping for massive capital gains and others fearing the sharp end of spiralling rates bills as Auckland's property market soars.
Property values in Auckland have skyrocketed since 2011, but residents should not to be alarmed about imminent rates increases. PLUS: See how the valuations have changed.
I find it remarkable that Labour's proposed capital gains tax has generated so little debate.
Rising interest rates have yet to dent people's expectations that house prices will continue to rise over the year ahead, especially in Auckland and Canterbury.
House sales fell 13 per cent in July as winter cooled the appetite of house hunters, but the national median price is still up $31,000 from a year earlier.
A rustic-style timber-clad high rise apartment block, has won a design competition to showcase more intensive Auckland building styles.
A subdivision for 60 houses at Helensville is being criticised by youth lobby group Generation Zero as a bad case of urban sprawl and costly for ratepayers.
Rising interest rates, LVR restrictions and the onset of winter have taken the heat out of the housing market, according to just released QV figures.
Labour and the Green Party have conceded that a capital gains tax would not be a "panacea" for New Zealand's unaffordable housing crisis.
Hate apartment blocks? Then take a closer look at these five, shortlisted in a competition to win over Aucklanders sceptical about their city's intensification.
Donghua Liu has pleaded guilty to charges laid by the Auckland Council over building works on two properties worth more than $6 million in plush suburbs.
A shortage of winter house listings is putting more pressure on already rocketing prices.
Andrew Bruce says property investment is now at a tax disadvantage when compared to other investment classes such as companies.
Look south, get an apartment or buy near a supermarket, say property experts who insist there is still good buying in Auckland's overheated housing market.
In a video interview on nzherald.co.nz, Eaqub said capital gains tax on investment property was often discussed in New Zealand as if it didn't exist - but it already does.
Banks are handing out mortgages of as much as $10 million to the wealthy in record numbers while first-time homebuyers struggle to get loans.
A French urban planning expert is in New Zealand this week, courtesy of think-tank the New Zealand Initiative.
Construction industry organisation Certified Builders has launched a new set of plans for houses, saying it could save people around $10,000.
Former All Black Marc Ellis has got offside with a neighbour at the prestigious gated community of Matiatia Estate on Waiheke Island.
Heritage building owners are struggling financially, unable to upgrade their places, breaching banking covenants and forced to sell properties cheaply, says a landlord.
A building crisis in Canterbury could be as widespread as the leaky home issue, lawyers say.
Banks are once again wooing first-home buyers to apply for a mortgage, even if they do not have a 20 per cent deposit.