Presidents Report: The opposition Labour Party have recently accused landlords of ripping off tenants who receive the accommodation supplement (AS). 01-08-2012 more >>
Westpac says that if the Official Cash Rate doesn’t rise by July 2013, the country’s housing market could go from warm to “positively frothyâ€. 01-08-2012 more >>
Million-dollar homes are as popular with Auckland buyers this year as they were in 2007, according to Barfoot and Thompson. The agency sold 424 Auckland residential properties for more than $1 million in the first six months of this year, matching the number sold in the same period of 2001. 01-08-2012 more >>
Housing is no longer the investment of choice for investors surveyed by ASB - except in Auckland. The latest ASB Investor Confidence Survey shows investors are becoming more cautious because of the looming crisis in Europe. 31-07-2012 more >>
Housing Minister Phil Heatley has confirmed the Government is considering changes to the accommodation supplement and has slammed the cost of new subdivisions. 30-07-2012 more >>
ACT Leader John Banks supports Finance Minister Bill English’s claim that house prices are “ridiculously high†and that affordability issues are “turning off†young New Zealanders. 30-07-2012 more >>
More land won’t mean cheaper housing, the chairman of the Environmental Defence Society says. Gary Taylor told the NZ Herald today that Fletcher Building chief executive Jonathan Ling was thinking only of his firm’s own pockets when he said expanding Auckland’s urban limits to create more housing would lower prices. 30-07-2012 more >>
Canterbury’s recovery is making a big difference to the number of building consents recorded nationwide. Statistics New Zealand said today that the total value of residential building consents rose 27% to $456 million for June 2012. The value trend has increased 30% since April 2011. 30-07-2012 more >>
A radio advertisement for Property Brokers did not meet the standards of financial advertising, the Advertising Standards Authority says. 27-07-2012 more >>
Lawyers say they are seeing “off-the-plans†property purchases again – after years of none. But the trend comes with a warning. Denise Marsden, of Alexander Dorrington, said the change was noticeable. 27-07-2012 more >>
This morning's announcement that the OCR will remain at 2.5% has prompted minimal reaction. Westpac said the Reserve Bank decision to leave the Official Cash Rate at 2.5% hadn’t affected its prediction that the first increase would be in July 2012. 26-07-2012 more >>
In its latest Property Pulse report, website chief executive Alistair Helm said the inventory of unsold homes was at a four-year low, below 30 weeks. 25-07-2012 more >>
Auckland Council has announced moves to address the city’s housing supply and property affordability problems. The city needs about 10,000 new homes a year but is building only 2500. 25-07-2012 more >>
ASB has agreed to a new 12-year lease term in its Dominion Rd, Auckland national support centre premises, which are being sold through a proportionate ownership scheme. 24-07-2012 more >>
Benign inflation data, the still strong currency and the fragile global economy are likely to offset any concerns Reserve Bank Alan Bollard might have about the stronger than expected domestic growth data for the March quarter and rising house prices. 23-07-2012 more >>
New Zealand’s housing shortage has become a crisis but a number of factors are working against massive price increases, says BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander. 20-07-2012 more >>
New Zealand Institute of Economic Research economist Shamubeel Eaqub says his friends don't listen to him when he tells them not to buy houses. 20-07-2012 more >>
ANZ says the New Zealand property market is finely balanced, although there are still more factors putting upwards pressure on house prices than likely to push prices down. 20-07-2012 more >>
Low interest rates aren’t just helping property prices – they are lining the pockets of the country’s plumbers, builders and electricians, according to the ANZ Business Microscope survey of small businesses. 19-07-2012 more >>
Debate over the Government’s accommodation supplement is heating up. Labour’s housing spokeswoman Annette King says the supplement artificially props up rents and has suggested the money - which she terms a $1.2 billion subsidy for landlords – could be better spent building more houses. 18-07-2012 more >>
Politicians claiming the accommodation supplement is lining the pockets of landlords seem to have forgotten one key point: There is a massive property shortage in New Zealand, and in Auckland in particular. 18-07-2012 more >>
Westpac’s economists say low rates of housing-related inflation in the June quarter of this year are likely to keep the official cash rate low for the foreseeable future. 18-07-2012 more >>
"THEY ARE snake oil, complete with white shoes and wagons :-)". That's what self-styled New Zealand property guru Dean Letfus wrote in March last year on Propertytalk.co.nz, when describing the US tax lien investments being promoted by rival Phil Jones. 18-07-2012 more >>
