Latest from Residential Property

Rates: Hot property drives higher costs

Auckland house values have risen up to 51.9 per cent in the past three years, which will impact on rates bills next year.

Kiwis rush to fix their loans

Homeowners are rushing to fix their mortgage interest rates after the second cash rate increase in as many months.

Interest rates hiked to 3pc

The Reserve Bank has increased the Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points to 3 per cent this morning.

Interest rate peak poses big risk

Interest rates could peak at a level which would see first-home buyers in Auckland spending two-thirds of household income paying the mortgage.

Lobbying to buy state houses - cheap

Community and iwi groups have asked the Govt to sell them up to a fifth of the country's 69,000 state houses at a discount of up to about half of market values.

Hot and cold spots for first homes

The proportion of house sales to first-home buyers has gone down in 90 Auckland suburbs since the Reserve Bank's mortgage lending limits came in.

Cartoon: Safe as houses

'Shoebox' apartment ban should go

A real estate agency boss has backed a call this week by finance minister Bill English to relax rules designed to stamp out so-called "shoebox apartments".

National house prices at record high

House prices around the country have hit a new high with the median price now topping $440,000 but sales are down 10% on last year. (+infographic)

No more annoying flatmates

The hidden cost and hassle of going flatting has boosted business for a chain of new-style boarding houses on former suburban office sites.

House in Auckland? $697,454 please

First-home buyers may be squeezed out but property prices in Auckland remain high as one agency reports record average sale prices.

Editorial: Ditching dual water plan makes sense

Editorial: Stonefields, a village-style residential development in what was the Mt Wellington quarry, has branded itself with environmental "sustainability".

First-home buys fall (+infographic)

The number of first-home buyers in the market has declined since mortgage-lending restrictions came in. So where are the worst-hit centres? Use our infographic.

Construction boom revs up

The country's busiest house builder expects to put up a third more homes this year and could build more than 1000.

Seminars help 'bank of Mum and Dad'

Mortgage loan restrictions are making the "bank of Mum and Dad" so popular that one bank is running seminars on the best way for people to structure the deals.

American millennials mired in worth gap

The damage inflicted on US households by the collapse of the housing market and recession wasn't evenly distributed.