Reserve Bank warns on housing
Climbing house prices and a growing proportion of lending at high loan-to-value ratios are stoking fears at the Reserve Bank of a boom followed by a destructive bust.
Climbing house prices and a growing proportion of lending at high loan-to-value ratios are stoking fears at the Reserve Bank of a boom followed by a destructive bust.
Kiwibank has today reduced its one-year home loan rate by 26 basis points and withdrawn a six-month special promotion.
Investors could soon be invited to put money into a new fund to buy Auckland residential property.
House buyers and sellers are more protected from dodgy agent dealings than before.
When Gaylene Mackereth left her home in Howick on a trip to the beach with her granddaughter recently, she paid a bit more attention than usual to the houses they passed.
The average New Zealand home owner could pick themselves up a lovely four-bedroom farm house in Brittany, France, or perhaps a 40-bedroom hotel in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria.
Auckland house prices are predicted to rise a further 12 per cent over the next year, with the nationwide average jumping almost $40,000 by the end of the year.
British ministers came under fire over benefit cuts as the independent body representing 1200 English housing associations described the controversial bedroom tax as bad policy.
Large parts of the country's building stock will be off-limits for disabled people under a proposal to trim the cost of upgrading thousands of earthquake-prone buildings, advocacy groups have warned.
The Bankers Association is critical of Reserve Bank proposals to increase the amount of capital banks have to hold against home loans with a high loan-to-value ratio (LVR).
If Auckland's housing woes can in part be laid at the door of residential investors as alleged, simply ban them, writes Bob Jones.
As one of the world's richest individuals he is unlikely to be too bothered, but the Sultan of Brunei has had trouble shifting some of his real estate he owns in New Zealand.
Auckland Council and the Government will create a working party to look at urgent issues relating to the city's housing crisis.
Homeowners looking to cash in on the skyrocketing prices of their central Auckland properties could be the reason for a levelling off or fall in rental costs.
Damien Grant believes selling in an overheated market is a smart move but paying 3 per cent of the asset's value to a real estate agent isn't.
A large slice of prime beachfront real estate is shaping up as the next battleground for those opposed to multilevel housing.
A new strategy is needed if we want young families to be able to buy homes as their parents and grandparents did, writes Jeff Walters. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix.
A World War II soldier's smart investment in prime Auckland land has provided a windfall for his family 80 years later.
Milford on Auckland's magnificent North Shore ticks all the right boxes for residential intensification.
Aucklanders have never embraced the kind of concentrated living arrangements envisioned in the Unitary Plan, writes Dick Quax.
Auckland has 2000 new sections ready to build houses on, says Mayor Len Brown, who last month claimed there was enough land for 15,000 homes.
Developers could receive ratepayer subsidies to build $1 million-plus apartments at a swanky housing development at Wynyard Quarter on the Auckland waterfront.
New Housing Minister Nick Smith is vowing to break the "stranglehold" of Auckland Council's policy of containing urban sprawl .
Affordable housing will be missing when Auckland Mayor Len Brown unveils plans today for a swanky new housing development at Wynyard Quarter on the waterfront.
To get a feel for what lies ahead in the field of bricks and mortar, Bruce Morris puts questions to three housing market experts.
Fifty million dollars worth of new homes are set to be built in Tauranga after being given council approval over summer.
Leaky home owners in Tauranga face paying more than $25 million to weatherproof their homes.