Top real estate agents are making up to $1.5 million a year as they cash in on soaring property prices.

Momentum in the Auckland property market appears to have stalled, with Barfoot and Thompson reporting another month of flat prices.

The house-building sector is experiencing its biggest surge in more than a decade as demand for new places.

New Zealand has the fourth-most overvalued property prices in the developed world, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

A marine industry chief says his sector has shunned Hobsonville's Yard 37 development because it distrusts Auckland Council.

Kohimarama residents say the draft Unitary Plan's proposals for five "walls" of apartment blocks reaching back from the popular Auckland beach on Tamaki Drive will blot out the reason they chose to live there: a connection to the sea.

Desperate house-hunters are rushing into purchases without legal advice as the "always-missing-out" experience drives up property prices.

Mathew Ryan recently rejoined the Auckland house-hunt - but says he won't be getting caught up in any scramble to secure a home.

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.

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.

Shandelle Battersby has just re-negotiated her mortgage.

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 country's most expensive suburb is out of reach for many with an average house price of nearly $2 million - but sales there are still thriving.

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.

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.

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

Intensification of housing needs to be matched by intensification of amenities, writes Dr Jamie Hosking. It must be sensitive to heritage and design values,

A former Coromandel real estate agent who forged his clients' initials on a document has been fined $700 - a fraction of the penalty he could have faced under new legislation.

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.