News articles

Official Cash Rate cut further 50 points to 2.5%

30 Apr 2009: Dr Bollard, the Reserve Bank Governor has just announced a further cut to the OCR bring the offiicial rate to 2.5%. Further details will follow shortly. read more >>

Interest rates cut - Will stay low till 2010

30 Apr 2009: Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard has cut official interest rates again, this morning taking a full half of one percent off the official cash rate. Since January this year the OCR has been the lowest in its 10 year history and today's cut takes it from 3 per cent to a new record low. read more >>

Westpac moves to cut mortgage rates after OCR cut

30 Apr 2009: Westpac Bank has moved quickly in response to this mornings cut in the official cash rate (OCR), saying it is cutting its 6 month home loan rates by 0.4 per cent. read more >>

Pros and cons of property syndication

29 Apr 2009: The appetite for syndicated property investments is increasing although its rise has not been greeted with delight by some expert and long-time investors. A Christchurch retail property is the latest to be offered for sale to syndicate investors this week, paying 9 per cent on $100,000 lots. read more >>

Pros and cons of property syndication

29 Apr 2009: The appetite for syndicated property investments is increasing although its rise has not been greeted with delight by some expert and long-time investors. read more >>

Message to Vendors: Be honest about condition.

27 Apr 2009: Anyone trying to sell their leaky home has been warned to front up and be honest after a court victory which saw a buyer awarded $407,000. Susan Pezaro, a Weathertight Homes Tribunal adjudicator, has just made the large order against the vendors of the Auckland house. read more >>

Lowest rents for a decade

26 Apr 2009: Landlords across the country are slashing rents to avoid having their properties stand empty as tenants find themselves in the best position for a decade. read more >>

Mortgagee Sales almost triple

26 Apr 2009: Investors are bearing the brunt of the crash in property values, according to figures out today. read more >>

Office vacancies tipped to top 10 per cent

24 Apr 2009: Double-digit vacancy rates are being forecast for Auckland offices. Alan McMahon, research and consulting director of Colliers International, has today issued a report saying vacancies were already up on last year but he expects the amount of empty floorspace to rise. read more >>

Mortgagee sales fell in March, says real estate website

22 Apr 2009: Mortgagee sale numbers are falling, according to property website realestate.co.nz. read more >>

Spate of major projects lifts confidence

22 Apr 2009: Building work started on 23 major construction projects in New Zealand last month and another 25 big contracts are in the pipeline. read more >>

Floating rates on a high

19 Apr 2009: Lower interest rates are prompting Kiwis to abandon their preference for fixed over floating-rate home loan terms. read more >>

Improvement in home affordability stalls in March

17 Apr 2009: The New Zealand Housing Affordability measure from interest.co.nz stalled at slightly worse levels in March, ending an almost unbroken run of improvement over the last year. A small rise in the median house price and an increase in two year mortgage rates combined to make housing less affordable in March from February. read more >>

Farm sales stay low, lifestyle property prices hold up

14 Apr 2009: Lifestyle property prices are holding up, but it is too early to tell if rural property sales have recovered given the low turnover in dairy farms, the Real Estate Institute said today. read more >>

It's a great life downtown ... except for the noise

14 Apr 2009: The typical central city apartment dweller in the capital is a young professional who dislikes city noise, the Wellington City Council has found. read more >>

Action on the Home Front

12 Apr 2009: Home buyers - including expats with an eye for a bargain - have returned to the market in strength, hunting both high end and investment property. read more >>

Bernard Hickey Opinion - 10 Reasons why the March housing surge was an 'Indian Summer'

12 Apr 2009: The weather as I write this (driving hail here in Auckland) suggests winter has arrived with a vengeance, but an initial look at a closely watched indicator of house sales out today appears to show the sun returning to the market that drives the New Zealand economy. read more >>

Counting the cost of mortgage holidays

12 Apr 2009: A 12-month mortgage holiday - or a brand-spanking new kitchen and bathroom? As Prime Minister John Key persuades the nation's banks to offer struggling homeowners one-year breaks on paying off their mortgages, figures reveal the enormous cost in taking the "holiday from hell". read more >>

Aussies beating us to the bank

12 Apr 2009: Owning a house across the ditch could cost you less in the long term, as Australian mortgage interest rates are well below those of local banks. read more >>

Action on the home front

12 Apr 2009: Home buyers - including expats with an eye for a bargain - have returned to the market in strength, hunting both high end and investment property. read more >>

House values fall nearly 10pc

9 Apr 2009: House prices are continuing their downward slide in New Zealand with Auckland driving the slump. read more >>

Kiwibank first to cut rates after Bollard warning

9 Apr 2009: Kiwibank has cut its 2 year mortgage rate by 10 basis points to 6.09 per cent, the lowest 2 year rate now offered by a bank. read more >>

Rents in Auckland fall, while Wellington rises

7 Apr 2009: The average weekly rent for a three bedroom house in Auckland has fallen over the past year from $450 to $435. read more >>

Mortgage applications surge up

7 Apr 2009: Baby boomers are returning to the housing market in droves - but younger first home buyers are still doing it tough. read more >>

Opinion: Why Whitianga has housing indigestion

7 Apr 2009: As the official website of Whitainga says, it offers: "Swimming, diving, bushwalking, scenic cruises, soaking in a hot pool at low tide, horse riding, fishing, kayaking, relaxed shopping, dining on local cuisine, golfing, bonecarving - experience the magic and relax in our unspoilt playground of paradise - a recreational haven just waiting for you." In addition the Whitianga Waterways offers sections with berths and a subdivision adjacent to the airport, which parallels the offering at Pauanui. read more >>

Business confidence lifts from negative, finds new survey

6 Apr 2009: Signs of an improving housing market are thought to be part of the reason for a lift out of negative territory in the latest BNZ confidence survey. read more >>

House hunters out to net a bargain

5 Apr 2009: The words "urgent sale" are setting a new trend on Trade Me as desperate house sellers link up with thousands of would-be buyers looking for a bargain. read more >>

House sellers hope to avoid agents' fees

5 Apr 2009: Kerryn and Ivan Bailey hope to save more than $7000 in agent's fees when they sell their two-bedroom Stanmore Bay house. read more >>

Real estate agents' charges 'too high'

5 Apr 2009: Homeowners are paying too much to real estate agents who have a stranglehold on the industry, a property expert has claimed. read more >>

Offshore investors renew interest

4 Apr 2009: Bayley's Real Estate is stepping up its offshore marketing activity in response to increasing international interest in New Zealand commercial and industrial property, particularly out of Southeast Asia. read more >>

Auckland housing market out of hibernation, Barfoot & Thompson says

3 Apr 2009: Auckland's largest real estate agency group, Barfoot and Thompson, has reported sales volumes jumped in March to a 20 month high as buyers "returned with a vengeance" and sellers accepted a slight fall in prices to clear the market. read more >>

Home sellers now asking for boom-time prices - real estate report

1 Apr 2009: After months of being told to lower expectations, people trying to sell their homes are pushing asking prices up even higher - now asking for money not seen since the peak of the property boom in 2007. read more >>

Price-fixing warning for real estate network

1 Apr 2009: The Commerce Commission has warned Christchurch real estate co-operative the Real Estate Network Ltd (REN) that its members risk breaching the Commerce Act for price fixing. read more >>

Kiwibank hikes 2 to 5-year mortgage rates

1 Apr 2009: Kiwibank has raised its 2, 3, 4 and 5 year mortgage rates this morning, bringing them into line with rate hikes announced by the other bigger banks over the last week. read more >>

Home owners, agents hike listing prices back to peak levels due to 'turning market'

1 Apr 2009: Media speculation about the housing market ‘turning the corner’, and lower interest rates, contributed to a rise in the median asking price for listed homes in March back to the peak levels last seen in October 2007, property listing site Realestate.co.nz said in its NZ Property Report released on Wednesday. read more >>