WOFs kick off

A Warrant of Fitness scheme for Housing New Zealand homes will target 500 houses between now and July, Housing Minister Nick Smith announced today. He said the system needed to be practical so it could be applied to thousands of houses across New Zealand. “We need to be cautious of removing houses from the rental market when there is a shortage. We also need to ensure that the benefits of the Warrant of Fitness standard exceed the costs, because housing affordability is a significant issue.”
19-02-2014 more >>

Property developer jailed

A property developer was today sentenced to six years in prison for a $47 million mortgage fraud. Malcolm Duncan Mayer was found guilty in December of 16 charges of dishonestly using a document and 10 charges of using forged documents.
18-02-2014 more >>

First-home buyers missing out: Survey

Reserve Bank loan-to-value (LVR) rules have had a big impact on first-home buyers, but not made much difference to investors, the latest BNZ/REINZ survey of real-estate agents shows.
17-02-2014 more >>

Cheaper power not a general WOF achieves warm homes

According to the report by Sapere Research Group released on Monday, the NZ Power proposal of the Labour and Green Parties does little to address the issue of fuel poverty.
14-02-2014 more >>

NZ property sales fall 4.3% in January, median price slips from record high

New Zealand property sales fell 4.3 percent in January from a year earlier while the median price slipped from the record high set in December, which may reflect high loan-to-value lending restrictions and seasonal factors, the Real Estate Institute says,.
14-02-2014 more >>

Parents back first-home buyers

More first-home buyers are turning up to open homes with a representative of “the bank of mum and dad”, says Real Estate Institute chief executive Helen O’Sullivan.
14-02-2014 more >>

LVR rules affecting FHBs most: Alexander

First-home buyers may be edging back into the market but are still bearing the brunt of the Reserve Bank’s loan-to-value restrictions, a new survey shows. BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said the results of the first BNZ/REINZ survey of real estate agents for the year would be released next week.
13-02-2014 more >>

Money laundering risk flagged

New legislation may make criminals more likely to launder money through property transactions, real estate agents have been warned. In its latest newsletter, the Real Estate Agents Authority said that property had previously been considered a complicated way to launder money.
13-02-2014 more >>

Community housing development opens

Twenty-two new rental properties were opened in Mangere today, as part of the Government’s programme of expanding the community housing sector. It follows legislation passed last year that allowed the Government to partner with community housing providers to extend the variety of social housing.
13-02-2014 more >>

Dunn: No tax to pay

Martin Dunn says he has been advised that returns from the sale of houses bought by his new investment company will not be taxable. That's despite the fact that the houses have been bought with the expressed intention of eventual sale.
12-02-2014 more >>

Sir Robert Jones says "Proposed housing fund sure recipe for failure"

It's certainly a sign of the times when something called the Dunn Housing Fund is being flogged to the public to "invest" in Auckland houses, he says.
11-02-2014 more >>

Harcourts picks rising prices

Harcourts agents have noticed increased interest in the market from property investors, the company’s latest MarketWatch report says. The real estate agency reported an average sale price of $665,726 for residential property in the Auckland and Northland region in January.
11-02-2014 more >>

Westpac: Market past peak

New Zealand's housing market has definitely passed its peak, Westpac's economists say. The bank has issued its latest Quarterly Economic Overview. In it, it says there is no doubt that the market has started to slow.
11-02-2014 more >>

QV blames LVR rules for slowing growth

Growth in property values slowed considerably in January, QV says, pointing the finger and loan-to-value restrictions and rising interest rates. It has released its latest statistics, which show nationwide values have increased 9.6% over the past year and 2.2% over the past three months.
10-02-2014 more >>

Mayor: Bumper year for housing

Auckland’s mayor claims the city is entering a growth phase for home building. He was speaking at an event to mark the start of construction of Brickworks, the city’s latest apartment development, at Hobsonville Point.
07-02-2014 more >>

Vendors treated as pawns: Helm

Vendors are losing out as agents battle Trade Me over fees, one commentator says. Groups of agents in some parts of the country have boycotted Trade Me after the company announced price rises. It has stopped charging a fixed fee to list all their properties to a fee of $159, plus GST, per listing.
07-02-2014 more >>

Trial underway for Warrant of Fitness for rental homes

Jackie Thomas-Teague President of the Wellington Property Investors' Association is interviewed regarding an assessment of one of her rental properties.
06-02-2014 more >>

Cheaper sales pick up: Barfoot

Barfoot and Thompson has reported renewed interest in the cheaper end of the market. The Auckland real estate agency has released its statistics for January. During the month, 334 homes were sold for less than $500,000 or 39.1% of all the homes sold.
05-02-2014 more >>

New listings growth seen as buyer interest surges to record high

Record traffic numbers to Realestate.co.nz’s various sites indicate a current increase in buyer interest and demand for homes. Over 1.65 million visitors browsed for property in January on their sites
04-02-2014 more >>

Listings pick up

Realestate.co.nz reported a lift in new listings last month, helping inventory levels to recover to a level not seen since April. It followed December’s seven-year low of just 8010 new properties on the site. Thirteen of the 19 regions reported a year-on-year increase in listings.
04-02-2014 more >>

Interest rates don't dull appetite

Property owners expect interest rates to rise by at least 1% by the end of this year but most are not expecting that to have any effect on their property portfolios.
04-02-2014 more >>

Changing housing market demands more stringent tenant checks

Make sure you don’t end up having a horse showering in your rental.
03-02-2014 more >>

RBNZ governor confirms rate rise

Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler has confirmed he expects to raise the benchmark interest rate to about 4.5 percent in the next two years to curb inflation.
31-01-2014 more >>

Pressure on both sides: ANZ

There’s a mixed outlook for the property market, if ANZ’s latest Property Focus is anything to go by. The bank’s economists have issued their monthly Property Focus, reporting pressure from both directions on house prices.
31-01-2014 more >>

Tribunal applications fast-tracked

A new system designed to cut the time it takes to resolve tenancy disputes will only be available to big property management firms and Housing New Zealand at first. Housing Minister Nick Smith has revealed details of the new "Fasttrack" process for the Tenancy Tribunal.
30-01-2014 more >>