Lenders are offering home-owners the lowest short-term bank mortgage rates in New Zealand history as they compete to lure customers before an expected rise next year.

The Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said the central bank had intervened in the currency market to take on the high New Zealand dollar in recent months and was prepared to "scale up" its activities if necessary.

Auckland's first mass affordable housing project, with homes priced from $320,000, could rise soon on a plant nursery site between Mt Wellington and Otahuhu.

Shandelle Battersby has just re-negotiated her mortgage.

Seattle's an economic engine, a leader in sustainability and a hub for culture and creativity, writes Dr Ann Bartos and John Mauro. It could easily be Auckland.

Auckland's 'frothy' housing market poses the biggest risk to the economy's strengthening recovery, the Institute of Economic Research says.

Auckland's booming residential market has pushed 10 new suburbs into the $1 million-plus club - raising the number to 17.

The Auckland Council hasn't done any work to compare urban and rural infrastructure costs as it asks Aucklanders to adapt to a new way of life.

It's disastrous socially because for most low and middle-income families, buying a house in Auckland is now not even remotely possible, writes Don Brash.

The greater issue is whether the workforce would be available given the mass exodus of skilled Kiwi workers to Australia and the demands of Christchurch, writes Ashley Church.

Asian business migrants looking at moving to New Zealand are being urged to invest in real estate to secure their residency.

Up to seven annual Auckland incomes would now be needed to buy a property in the city for its median house price.

Auckland's heritage character is under threat from apartments in half of residential Auckland, says the Character Coalition.

Whether it's walls of apartments on the ridges overlooking Browns Bay or 18-storey high rises in Newmarket, the council is facing a chorus of complaints.

The first house is rising at Todd Property's new Long Bay residential estate on the northern outskirts of Auckland.

Each owner of leak-struck twin tower high-rise Hobson Gardens faces paying $50,000 to $75,000 to get their unit fixed after the collapse of Mainzeal Property & Construction.

Half of suburban Auckland built up with three-storey apartments? Under the rules of the draft Unitary Plan it's about as likely as the sun setting in the east.

Aucklanders are looking as far away as Hamilton to buy homes as more people find themselves squeezed out of their local real estate market.

The draft Auckland Unitary Plan proposes a fundamental change to the urban fabric of Auckland, writs Richard Burton. Multi-storey, high-density apartment buildings formerly reserved to the inner city and adjoining areas are now proposed.

Plans to intensify Auckland with terraced housing and apartment buildings are deja vu for one community, which met last night to discuss the potential changes.

The CV is misleading and potentially damaging to the process of real estate, writes Alistair Helm.

A public meeting of about 500 people has told the Auckland Council to rethink its intensification plans for the city, start listening to communities and stop spinning.

Against a backdrop of rising share prices and a booming Auckland housing market, investor confidence reached its highest level.

Standard & Poor's, the global credit rating agency, has put eight local banks on notice over the rising risk of a housing bubble bursting in New Zealand.

Residential rents could rise and historic buildings might be abandoned, say property chiefs who have mixed feelings about real estate changes in the Budget.