Westpac Bank has launched a new service offering electronic coaching to people saving for their first home and a $1000 carrot to those who manage to reach at least $10,000.

Financier's share from sale just a portion of $39m price - unless FMA gets it.

The coastal property market is making a comeback after years of stagnant or declining prices.

Auckland's most expensive house, the seven-bedroom mansion on exclusive Paritai Drive partly financed by former Hanover Finance director Mark Hotchin, has been sold to a businessman for $39m.

Thompson Park, a $50 million 107-unit apartment project with units starting at $230,000, is about to be built in the Mt Wellington/Ellerslie area.

North Shore residents worried that three- and four-storey apartments could rise on vacant waterfront land.

The building industry has stepped up pressure on the Reserve Bank over its loan to value ratio (LVR) loan restrictions.

A successful building plan will result in a 10,000-home oversupply in Auckland, says NZIER.

Making houses more affordable in Auckland will require far more land to be freed up .

A four-bedroom Meadowbank home bought for $973,000 in May was sold for $162,000 more three months later despite no renovations.

Four years since work started at northwest Auckland's 3,000-residence Hobsonville Pt housing estate, the 150th house is about to be finished.

Rent increases have made all low-income groups in Auckland except superannuitants worse off in real terms than they were five years ago, according to the Salvation Army.

A controversial beach property development at Te Arai Point, north of Auckland, has been approved.

People wanting to pay less interest and shave years off their mortgages are being advised to buy homes in "hidden-gem" suburbs.

The Reserve Bank doubts its curbs on mortgage lending at high loan-to-value ratios will have a material counter-productive effect on house building.

NZ's median house price rose 1.9 per cent to a record in October, although sale volumes were dented as Reserve Bank lending restrictions began to bite.

There are early signs the Reserve Bank's lending restrictions are cooling the home loan market but it may be months before the full impact is known, says an analyst.

Labour MP Carol Beaumont has been forced to declare her role in administering $900,000 worth of property.

Work starts today on one of Auckland's most controversial sites, as a supermarket giant begins transforming the chasm of Ponsonby's Soho Square.

An enterprising landlord has been swamped with inquiries about his modest rental property after offering a free holiday as a sweetener to prospective tenants.

It will be like the United Nations on The Block come Christmas time when the new owners of the houses made famous on the TV3 renovation series move in.

John Key has admitted he had to be persuaded to back off his bid to press the Reserve Bank into exempting first-home buyers from the banks' new loan rules.