News articles

Building consents bounce a little in February, but still weak

31 Mar 2009: Building consents bounced to 1,089 in February from a record low 812 in January as apartment numbers in Wellington rebounded, but overall consents were down 43.5% from February a year ago as the building industry continues to struggle with weak demand and financing problems. (Updated with what I think below) read more >>

Building a green reputation

31 Mar 2009: China's answer to Donald Trump says New Zealand has a global reputation for building environmentally friendly houses. read more >>

House-building sector still down in the dumps

31 Mar 2009: The house-building sector is still in the doldrums, according to figures out yesterday from Statistics New Zealand. read more >>

Home mortgage lending grew NZ$293 mln in February

31 Mar 2009: read more >>

Mortgagee sales reach new high

30 Mar 2009: Mortgagee sale figures have reached a new high, with Auckland hardest hit, latest figures show. read more >>

Talks continue over 'unsaleable house'

30 Mar 2009: Negotiations are continuing over a property dubbed the "unsaleable house" after it failed to reach its auction reserve price yesterday. read more >>

Opinion: Why baby boomers are choosing bonds and property

30 Mar 2009: The accepted wisdom for years has been that savers with some time to spare before retirement should choose shares rather than bonds, property or bank accounts because equity investments make much better returns over the long term. read more >>

Home loan rates rise in rush to fix

28 Mar 2009: Fixed mortgage rates have been driven higher this week, largely because of a stampede of homebuyers convinced recent low levels were soon to rise, industry figures say. read more >>

Home loan rates rise in rush to fix

28 Mar 2009: Fixed mortgage rates have been driven higher this week, largely because of a stampede of homebuyers convinced recent low levels were soon to rise, industry figures say. read more >>

'Mortgagee sale' can be trick to lure buyers

28 Mar 2009: Estate agents are dressing down houses displayed on websites to look like mortgagee sales so they will entice bargain hunters. read more >>

Housing affordability on the improve - report

27 Mar 2009: It became easier for New Zealanders to afford a home in the three months to February, according to Massey University. read more >>

What to do now long term mortgage rates are rising

27 Mar 2009: Bernard Hickey looks at the options for mortgage borrowers now it’s clear that long term mortgage rates are rising and rising fast. read more >>

ASB joins others in raising long-term rates

26 Mar 2009: The steep rise of longer term mortgage rates continues, with ASB raising their fixed mortgage rates for terms three years and greater this morning. read more >>

Residents fight for bigger cut

25 Mar 2009: Beaumont Quarter residents in Central Auckland are fighting to have their $3.1 million annual ground rent bill cut by another $1 million. read more >>

House sales up in US as buyers find bargains

25 Mar 2009: Sales of homes in the US unexpectedly increased in February as record foreclosures pushed down prices and lured first-time buyers into the market. read more >>

Investment houses 'back to fair value'

24 Mar 2009: House prices have fallen below a fair price that investors should be willing to pay - the first time this has happened since late 2006 - says the Westpac Bank. read more >>

Mortgage rates hiked at ANZ National

24 Mar 2009: ANZ National Bank has bumped up its fixed interest rates for three, four and five-year mortgages and business loans. read more >>

Opinion: 5 reasons why house prices don't represent 'fair value'

24 Mar 2009: The New Zealand Herald led this morning with a report on Westpac Economist Doug Steel’s comments at Auckland’s regional job summit yesterday, where he said housing now represented ‘fair value.’ read more >>

Home buyers will soon go cold

23 Mar 2009: With just two weeks until daylight saving ends, the race is on for homeowners wanting to sell before the winter market freeze - without losing their shirt in the process. read more >>

Complaints rise against stubborn landlords

23 Mar 2009: Complaints against landlords are increasing, with failure to carry out repairs or return bonds the biggest problems for renters. read more >>

Opinion: Seasonal adjustment gives further reason to believe that housing upturn has started

23 Mar 2009: our pay-to-view reports we regularly present seasonally adjusted data for the likes of house sales, residential building consents and migration but understandably to a number of people we are talking gobbledegook when we refer to seasonally adjusted data. So this Raving takes an educational bent in explaining why some data are adjusted for seasonal patterns and how to interpret seasonally adjusted data using insightful real world examples and plain English. read more >>

Electronic lodgement now mandatory and public counters have closed

23 Mar 2009: As of 23 February 2009, it is mandatory for land transactions to be lodged electronically. read more >>

Olly Newland: Safe tenancies way to prosper

22 Mar 2009: Against the backdrop of the deepening international recession the New Zealand property market is set to enter a long flat stage later this year. read more >>

Leaky buildings bills clobber city ratepayers

20 Mar 2009: The Auckland City Council has paid $41.5 million on leaky building claims and is in the process of settling another 148 claims, totalling $225 million. read more >>

Builders feel heat of rules on insulation

20 Mar 2009: New-home builders are beginning to feel the pinch with higher costs to keep their homes warm. read more >>

ASB says it already offers 'holidays'

19 Mar 2009: ASB Bank says it has already been able to offer lengthy repayment holidays of six months or more to mortgage borrowers similar to those announced this week by its parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia. read more >>

Wheeler-dealer sheilas set sights on Kiwi property

18 Mar 2009: A group of Australian women property investors will arrive in Auckland this week hoping to inspire people to make money their way. read more >>

$167m wiped from office values

18 Mar 2009: New Zealand's largest prime office block landlord has had $167 million wiped off the value of its properties, blaming its falling fortunes on the global downturn. read more >>

Charles Lowndes: Housing crisis lies in lack of supply, not falling prices

16 Mar 2009: New Zealand is facing a housing crisis, but it's not about prices falling ... It's the lack of house supply for a growing population that is approaching crisis point. read more >>

Bidding strong for city houses

16 Mar 2009: Two Auckland houses have sold for well over their reserves after drawing big crowds at open homes and auctions. read more >>

Students priced out of digs

16 Mar 2009: Students are having trouble finding affordable accommodation in Auckland because recession-hit families are moving into rental properties. read more >>

Cut loose from the noose

15 Mar 2009: A mortgage can be a life-changing experience. read more >>

Low interest rates spark resurrection

14 Mar 2009: The dramatic fall in interest rates over the past few months has helped to kick life back into the commercial and industrial property agency business, says Chris Bayley, general manager commercial and industrial for Bayleys Real Estate. read more >>

Warning issued over February house price rise

13 Mar 2009: Economists are warning against reading too much into the latest house sales data showing big price and volume jumps. read more >>

'Pitiful' award in leaky-home case

13 Mar 2009: A leaky-home victim is devastated after getting less than half the money she had claimed. read more >>

Brother against brother for $2m

13 Mar 2009: Leaky-building property developer Greg Nielsen is on the verge of bankrupting his brother and former business partner Rod over a $2 million debt. read more >>

Law change 'may spur housing gold rush'

13 Mar 2009: Planning experts say a proposed law change could spark a rush on coastal subdivision as developers try to beat incoming council rules. read more >>

Bollard's barrel is nearly empty

13 Mar 2009: Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard cut the official cash rate for the sixth time in eight months yesterday but signalled that there is not much more where that came from. read more >>

House prices up - but experts aren't convinced

12 Mar 2009: Economists have warned against reading too much into fresh house sales figures showing big jumps in prices and number of houses sold. read more >>

Farm sales very low in February, dairy down 88% from last year

12 Mar 2009: There were only 75 farm sales in New Zealand in February, up marginally from the record low of 73 in January, figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show. Total February sales were 63% below the average February figure for the past four years. read more >>

Buying first home is now easier

11 Mar 2009: A change to the KiwiSaver rules will make saving for a first home considerably easier, says Minister of Housing Phil Heatley. read more >>

Foreign property buyers shy away

11 Mar 2009: Foreign buyers are shunning New Zealand investment property, their share of deals falling from a quarter of the market three years ago to just 8 per cent last year. read more >>

Dollar dive makes Auckland far cheaper

11 Mar 2009: It may not feel like it to recession-hit residents, but Auckland is becoming a cheaper city in which to live, according to a new international survey. read more >>

BNZ's Tony Alexander sees housing sentiment improving

11 Mar 2009: BNZ Chief Economist Tony Alexander said there had been a significant improvement in sentiment in the residential real estate market, according to BNZ’s latest confidence survey. read more >>

Alastair Helm on the real estate slump

10 Mar 2009: Alastair Helm of realestate.co.nz talks to Paul Henry on TVNZ Breakfast about the real estate slump. read more >>

Mortgagee listings edge up to fresh record in last week

10 Mar 2009: Listings for mortgagee sales on trademe and realestate.co.nz edged up to a record high 616 in the last week from 606 last Monday, our survey of these websites found. This is more than treble the levels seen when we started the survey in March last year. read more >>

Stats show commercial building on the rise

10 Mar 2009: The volume of non-residential building work has increased for the two most recent quarters.Statistics NZThe commercial building sector is faring better than the house-building business. read more >>

Housing values continue their steady decline

9 Mar 2009: House values dropped further in the year to February, says QV Valuations, which expects values to continue easing for the rest of the year. read more >>

Building slump accelerating, say new figures

9 Mar 2009: The slump in house building continued for a fifth consecutive quarter in the three months to December and the decline is accelerating, new Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) figures show. read more >>

Fed Farmers attack banks for not passing on all of wholesale rate cuts

9 Mar 2009: Federated Farmers attacked banks again on Monday for not passing on all the recent cuts in wholesale and official interest rates to farmers’ overdraft rates, saying banks appear to be offering much lower home mortgage rates at the expense of high business and farm overdraft rates. read more >>

BNZ drops 4.99% special mortgage rate

9 Mar 2009: The Bank of New Zealand has dropped its market-leading 4.99% rate for a six month mortgage and replaced it with a 5.69% rate, which is slightly lower than the other major banks, but in line with the 5.69% rate offered by Kiwibank for 1 year. read more >>

Rents flat in February, defying hopes for rises

9 Mar 2009: Rents remained broadly flat across New Zealand in February, defying the hopes of property investors that reduced supply of new housing and landlord demand for higher yields would boost rents. Rents were weakest for two bedroom apartments in Auckland. read more >>

Real estate firm ordered to pay $1m for misleading conduct

7 Mar 2009: The Supreme Court has ordered Premium Real Estate to pay an Auckland couple almost $1 million after their Castor Bay home was sold to a property developer for $2.5 million who then resold shortly afterwards for $3.5 million. read more >>

Harcourts says increased website traffic is sign housing market set to improve

7 Mar 2009: Harcourts CEO Bryan Thompson said an increase in traffic on Harcourts’ website was “a good sign the real estate market is set to improve.” Thompson said Harcourts’ website received more traffic in February than in any other month in almost two years. read more >>

Big rate cut coming next week, say ASB economists

6 Mar 2009: ASB economists are predicting a 1 percentage point cut to official interest rates next week. read more >>

Opinion: Long-term rates have bottomed, harder to pick bottom of short-term rates

5 Mar 2009: The developing picture of where NZ interest rates will be in 12 and 24 moths time is still not all that clear, but as time passes the movements at the long-end of the yield curve is certainly telling us something. read more >>

Analysis: Capitalisation of break fees may have driven up mortgage lending figures

5 Mar 2009: Mortgage lending by banks jumped a surprising NZ$527 million in January, suggesting lower interest rates and a pickup in demand for cheaper housing may have been firing up the housing market again. read more >>

Auckland property market back from the dead?

5 Mar 2009: It may not be the dawn itself, but latest house sales numbers from Auckland's largest real estate company might just show the first glimmer of light in a gloomy property market. read more >>

Mortgagee listings jump to record high in last week

4 Mar 2009: Mortgagee listings on realestate.co.nz and trademe.co.nz leapt to a record 606 in the last week, a weekly survey by interest.co.nz has found. read more >>

Property guru McEwan bankrupted

4 Mar 2009: Former high-flying developer and self-styled property investment guru Dan McEwan has been bankrupted. read more >>

Bidders battle for humble bach

4 Mar 2009: The housing market may be in the doldrums but it seems the Kiwi dream of owning a place on the beach is as strong as ever. read more >>

ANZ economists warn against new housing optimism

3 Mar 2009: ANZ economists are making cautionary noises about the housing market, after some indications emerged on Friday that general sentiment could be improving. read more >>

Majority think now's the time to buy a house

2 Mar 2009: The proportion of people thinking it is a good time to buy a house continues to rise, even as most people taking part in a new survey expect house prices to fall further. read more >>

Owners labelled as developers in claims

2 Mar 2009: Large leaky-house claims are being brought against former homeowners who are being dubbed developers because they had new homes built. read more >>

Desperate vendor cuts price by $1.5m

2 Mar 2009: If you've got a few million to spare, there's a cute little place on Auckland's North Shore going for a song. read more >>

Building surveyors hard to find, even as pay tops $80,000

2 Mar 2009: While the spectre of widespread layoffs haunts many sectors, a qualified building surveyor would have little trouble finding work, if advertising is any indication. read more >>

Construction sector expects rebound soon

2 Mar 2009: Workers in the $12 billion building and construction sector are facing the toughest times in almost two decades but a rebound is being picked soon. read more >>

Martin Hawes: Property to keep falling

1 Mar 2009: Like many commentators, I think property values will continue to fall. I base this on doing some basic numbers. Those numbers are about yield - the amount of cash you can take from an investment before any capital gain or loss. read more >>

If it ain't broke, don't refix it

1 Mar 2009: New Zealanders desperate for any form of immediate cost saving are making a huge mistake by choosing to break out of fixed mortgages and slapping the subsequently huge break fees back on to their mortgages. read more >>

Farm couple's mortgagee sale heartbreak

1 Mar 2009: Stuart McNie's grandfather held on to his farm through the Great Depression. But he did not have to face floods, then drought, then the "harsh, uncompromising" actions of a mortgage company. read more >>