NZ@Noon: Free rent anyone?

Ryan Hunt from High Mark homes. Photo / Ruth Keber

Stories making headlines today includes a Kiwi reality TV star taking New York by storm, a singer hopeful of a call back and building companies are wooing clients.

Building companies are offering big incentives to prospective buyers as competition heats up - including paying their rent.

Rotorua Daily Post reporter Bridie Witton grabbed her guitar, put aside her cynicism and joined the X-Factor pre-audition queue.

Project Runway winner Sean Kelly, 24, can finally speak to his family now that the cone of silence has lifted and the world knows he has won.

Hastings District Council will remove metal bollards designed to enhance safety on Havelock Rd's cycling and walking path - after the wife of a councillor had to go to hospital after falling onto one.

Victor Domanski, of Masterton, has written his first book - the story of a Polish-Kiwi family who arrived in New Zealand during the 1940s.

And finally, three young Far North musicians are the envy of their schoolmates after they were invited on stage to perform with legendary 1990s funk-rock band Supergroove.