Buyers - rich and not so rich - have almost unprecedented opportunities this summer to nab their very own pieces of cut-price paradise.

A new kind of real estate agent – known as an EcoBroker - has entered the Kiwi housing market.

Harcourts CEO has predicted a marked improvement in property prices in provincial and coastal areas in 2010.

We're buying a bach for Christmas," announced my husband to the gathering.

An elite number of homeowners shelled out over $3m for new homes in the past year, despite being in the midst of a credit crunch.

Home loan affordability worsened in Auckland and Northland for first home buyers last month.

Some of the tax changes under consideration would reduce house prices and raise rents, says Westpac.

House prices across New Zealand rose a slim 0.2 per cent in November, says the Real Estate Institute, but those in Auckland have soared nearly 12 per cent over the past year.

One in three people viewing realestate.co.nz earlier this year searched the words "mortgagee sale", hunting a bargain ripe for plucking.

Sir Edmund Hillary's home has been saved from the wrecker's ball and will be moved to the school that bears the famous New Zealander's name.