News articles

Business Confidence keeps rising, Builders most optimistic

30 Jun 2009: The latest Business Outlook survey from the National Bank contains more good news for those hoping the worst of the recession is over, with a net 6 per cent expecting business conditions to improve over the next 12 months. This is up 4 percentage points from the last survey held in May. read more >>

Property slump hits small-time investors

30 Jun 2009: Buy-to-let landlords who invested in "cheap" areas are at the sharp end of a housing slump which has seen a record number of mortgagee sales. read more >>

Aucklanders hit hardest as forced property sales quadruple

29 Jun 2009: Mortgagee sales in Auckland are the highest in New Zealand, with more than four times as many forced sales than a year ago. read more >>

Scenic golf links set for housing

29 Jun 2009: An Orewa golf course with park-like fairways and sea views is set for a 600-house development. read more >>

Colliers stays upbeat at 20 years old

27 Jun 2009: Colliers International is celebrating 20 years in New Zealand amid similar conditions to its launch in Auckland in 1989 when the Australian-founded brand was barely a decade old. read more >>

Housing Report: Two startling charts that show where house prices will go and how they'll affect retail spending

26 Jun 2009: Bernard Hickey delivers a housing report in association with ASB, including two charts which show a close connection between house prices and consumer spending, and a close connection with a three month lag between house sales volumes and house prices. read more >>

Housing Report: Two startling charts that show where house prices will go and how they’ll affect retail spending

26 Jun 2009: Bernard Hickey delivers a housing report in association with ASB, including two charts which show a close connection between house prices and consumer spending, and a close connection with a three month lag between house sales volumes and house prices. read more >>

PGG Wrightson downgrades earnings expectations

24 Jun 2009: PGG Wrightson has revised down its projected full-year earnings, due to global recession and a dairy sector slowdown. read more >>

Westpac economists on funding costs,net interest margins and profits

23 Jun 2009: Westpac's Chief Economist Brendan O'Donovan and Market Economist Michael Gordon released a bulletin on Tuesday morning centred around the current debate on profits, interest margins and funding costs for the 'big 4' Australian-owned banks in New Zealand. read more >>

House Prices dive in Auckland City

21 Jun 2009: The Nelson suburb of Stoke survived the housing slump in the strongest shape - while Central Auckland copped the heaviest hammering. A Real Estate Institute analysis compared the rolling three-month median sale prices for May across 41 suburbs with those for the same time in 2007, ranking the areas by their percentage increase or decrease in value. read more >>

Posh properties get biggest pounding

21 Jun 2009: Some of the nation's poshest property proved the biggest casualty of the market slump that's pounded values everywhere. read more >>

Home loan affordability improves for first time in 2009

19 Jun 2009: The BNZ Home Loan Affordability measure improved in May from April, which was the first monthly improvement in 2009. read more >>

New property listings still down - Harcourts

18 Jun 2009: Real estate company Harcourts is continuing to report a low level of new listings as a feature of the property market, which it says will continue to stabilise. read more >>

New villages for retired highlight growth area

17 Jun 2009: Two Auckland retirement village projects worth about $200 million open this week. read more >>

NZ mid-table in global house-price changes

15 Jun 2009: New Zealand has placed near the middle of an international list ranking house-price changes. read more >>

Economic Update: RBNZ on hold with hope

13 Jun 2009: The RBNZ kept the OCR on hold at 2.5% as we were expecting, in addition the tone of the RBNZ's statement delivered few surprises. The RBNZ acknowledged signs of so called green shoots, noting international economic activity is stabilising and international financial conditions are improving. read more >>

Outlook brighter on house price fall

12 Jun 2009: he Reserve Bank has revised downward a prediction median house prices will fall up to 20 per cent in the recession, though sales volumes appear to be falling. read more >>

House prices continue slipping - REINZ

11 Jun 2009: House prices are still tracking downward, but there are signs that business will start to pick up in a couple of months, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ). There has been a slight fall in the value of properties sold in May across the country, but volumes remain steady as does the length of time required to sell a home, the report says. read more >>

Mortgage rates creeping up

9 Jun 2009: More small upward moves by banks on longer-term mortgages today. read more >>

Property values continue to stabilise

8 Jun 2009: The QV national residential property indices for May released today showed an 8.1 per cent decline in property values over the last year, a considerable improvement on the 9.2 per cent decline reported last month. This is the second month in a row where the year on year change has improved. read more >>

Sales up for top-end premises

7 Jun 2009: Kiwis tired of renting and waiting for the housing market to bottom out coupled with good interest rates are among reasons for increased sales of properties over $1 million in the past month. Barfoot and Thompson sold 57 houses in the $1m-plus bracket last month, the highest number sold in that range in 18 months. read more >>

Sales up for top-end houses

7 Jun 2009: Kiwis tired of renting and waiting for the housing market to bottom out coupled with good interest rates are among reasons for increased sales of properties over $1 million in the past month. read more >>

ASB first bank to raise 5 year mortgage rate back to 8%

5 Jun 2009: ASB has become the first bank this year to raise its five year mortgage rate back up to 8%. read more >>

House prices and sale numbers up

5 Jun 2009: Relatively low mortgage interest rates could be firing up Auckland's housing market and encouraging more people to buy. read more >>

Auckland house prices up in May, sales keep climbing

4 Jun 2009: Auckland house prices rose last month, says the region's biggest real estate companies, which is also reporting a lift in sales numbers. read more >>

More funds to fix, buy state houses

3 Jun 2009: People with leaky homes get less from the Budget but money allocated to fix and buy more state houses rises dramatically. read more >>

New property listings still in decline

2 Jun 2009: The number of new property listings declined for the third month in a row, with listings in May dropping a further 5 per cent on April, according to the property website Realestate.co.nz. read more >>

Weak housing market starts to grow shoots

2 Jun 2009: The housing market, which has been depressed for the past 18 months, appears to have bottomed out - at least in Auckland. read more >>

Buying cheaper than renting, but only just as advantage narrows

1 Jun 2009: Interest.co.nz's Rent or Buy Report for April shows it was marginally cheaper to buy than to rent a similar property in April, but the advantage seen for buying over renting has narrowed in the last 3 months to virtually nothing. read more >>