A "warrant of fitness" scheme for all rental housing may be on the agenda whoever wins the election in September, a new survey has found.

Landlords are too lenient when a tenant falls behind in rent or causes damage, property managers say.

A landlord whose property was left in squalor by a tenant owing more than $6k rent and another who caused $28,000 damage, says renting is risky.

For rent: a $220 a week room on Auckland's North Shore complete with a "summer kitchen".

A landlord tried to rent a North Shore studio which had the kitchen, bathroom and laundry in the same room.

First time landlords are being warned to check how much tax they may need to pay on rental incomes ahead of the July 7 deadline.

An Auckland landlord wants tenants to rent his caravan without a toilet or shower at his Sandringham property, advertising the "Arabian nights" bargain at $200 a week.

Yong Xin Chen bought a leasehold $2.4 million Greenlane property from the Cornwall Park Trust Board expecting to develop it, the High Court has been told.

Yong Xin Chen, being sued for more than $300k after abandoning her leasehold Greenlane property, broke down crying in court yesterday.

A woman who walked away from her multi-million dollar Auckland house has failed to get legal costs in a battle over freezing assets.

'Cave' dwellers will officially get top priority for social housing under new rules that kicked in this week.

Restored cottage on Rangitoto will soon take paying holidaymakers back to 1930s.

NZ could have had a superannuation pot of gold worth $278b by next year had it kept a compulsory savings scheme set up in 1974, a financial industry body claims.

Average Auckland apartment sale prices rose more than a third in the past two years yet rents were static. But that could be about to change.

Auckland landlords are making more capital gains off their rental properties than those elsewhere, a trend predicted to speed up in the next few years.

State houses will have to be leak-free, well-ventilated and contain an electric light in each room to get a warrant of fitness.

A new book is out to help landlords, with a series of forms ranging from notices to increase rent to a dog clause document.

Renters are paying up to $70 more a week than they were four years ago in some of Auckland's city fringe suburbs.

An enterprising landlord has been swamped with inquiries about his modest rental property after offering a free holiday as a sweetener to prospective tenants.

House rental prices in Auckland could rise up to 50 per cent in some areas because new mortgage lending restrictions are pushing would-be home owners to rent.

The prices of necessities such as shelter and food are rising at a faster rate than non-essential items, particularly manufactured goods, writes Peter Lyons.

A West Coast woman who told a court she could only afford to pay $2 a week to her former landlord was caught out trying to buy $62 of cigarettes by a judge at the supermarket.

The Cornwall Park Trust Board has extended an olive branch to cash-strapped ground renters, offering to change the terms of 110 controversial leases.

It's no secret that Kiwis have a love affair with property. Any spare money goes into bricks and mortar, rather than a weighty investment portfolio.

Single dad Tommy Sutton has looked at about 10 rental properties in two weeks in South Auckland but all have been out of his price range.

An unseasonably warm winter has pushed rental prices up in 25 of 30 Auckland suburbs, forcing some families to share with each other.

Sleepouts built in China are due to arrive in New Zealand in containers in the next two months.

New landlord Vicky Crawford has been inadvertently passing on the full Watercare Services bill to her tenants - unaware a portion of it was hers to pay.

Thousands of tenants are picking up the tab for water bills that should be paid by their landlords.