The first batch of 6000 new homes for fast-track residential development in Auckland has got a lukewarm response from property experts.

Protestors carrying signs saying 'Bugger Off Bunnings' have picketed Auckland Council this morning as a hearing on setting up a Grey Lynn branch continues.

Actress Tandi Wright and Seven Sharp presenter Jesse Mulligan want to stop the Bunnings Warehouse Grey Lynn.

When Ken Lotu-Iiga landed in South Auckland as a child from Samoa, he could speak not a word of English.

One of Australasia's biggest infrastructure, resources and roading businesses wants to eliminate fatalities in the year ahead.

First-home buyers in the provinces will be given a subsidy of up to $20,000 to move into vacant state houses, Housing Minister Nick Smith announced today.

The Reserve Bank's new mortgage lending restrictions come into force today, restricting the number of high loan-to-value ratio mortgages banks can lend.

Prime Minister John Key has dismissed builders' concerns that new Reserve Bank mortgage lending limits will reduce the number of new homes being built.

Fletcher Building chief Mark Adamson says the changes being made at New Zealand's largest listed entity mirror the corporate recovery at Formica Group.

Alice, the Waterview Connection's tunnel boring machine, is lined up at the mouth of her first Mt Roskill wall, ready to dig the country's biggest roading job.

The new British-born head of Fletcher Building earned $3.3 million in the year to June 30, according to the NZX-listed heavyweight's latest annual report.

Analysts at two investment specialists have upgraded Fletcher Building's prospects because of recent success.

Building products giant Carter Holt Harvey is among companies battling a multimillion-dollar claim brought by the Ministry of Education over leaky schools.

In what turned out to be a tale of two countries, Fletcher Building announced a lift in its annual net profit yesterday, with Australia's economic downturn detracting from a strong showing in New Zealand.

Australia has old-fashioned union arrangements and needs "a dose of Margaret Thatcher," says Mark Adamson, the British chief executive of Fletcher Building.

The Government fired another shot in its battle to control rising house prices yesterday, announcing law changes it says will curb charges levied by local authorities on developers for providing infrastructure such as roads and sewerage to new subdivision

New Zealand buildings including houses will increasingly be manufactured in bulk in factories and assembled on site, and the consenting process will have to change accordingly, says Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson.

Port bosses express confidence mayoral investigation will vindicate their blueprint for further development.

When Fletcher Building paid around $1 billion for Formica in 2007, the business was only three years out of a financial hole and Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Government has set a deadline of 20 years for assessing 193,000 buildings for earthquake risk and strengthening them.

Eighteen people are expected to lose their jobs after a 53-year-old flooring company owed $250,000 by failed construction firm Mainzeal went into liquidation today.