While increasing the OCR this morning, Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard has indicated that future hikes won't be as aggressive as earlier tipped.

The NZ dollar climbed to a six-month high as a surge in new home sales in the US stoked investors' appetite for higher-yielding, or riskier, assets.

It's clear the economy has become dependent on the debt growth fuelled by the housing market's ever-increasing values.

Home owners planning to make a quick buck renting their houses during the Rugby World Cup need to be careful - the taxman is watching you.

NZers will look back on the winter of 2010 as the moment we finally realised the last decade of growth was a sham.

House prices firmed up last month, but turnover stayed low said the Real Estate Institute.

Tough new Auckland City rules about the number of real estate signs allowed on one property are being flouted, as agents wait for the supercity merger.

House values across the country are losing ground because of cautious buyers and high levels of distressed sales pulling down prices.

Kiwibank, which led its rivals in cutting two-year fixed home loan rates last week, has now followed them by reducing its three, four and five year rates.

Auckland house sales slumped 16pc in June, with the average sale price falling 3.6pc from a year ago, says real estate firm Barfoot & Thompson.

Westpac economists expect house prices to fall about 2 per cent this year and another 2 per cent next year.

House prices will fall gently for the next two years before levelling out, says a leading bank economist.

New Zealand's housing market is "still way overpriced" by international measures, says Finance Minister Bill English.