Rental market madness (07 Feb 2011)
Demand for rental property in Auckland is at crisis point, with some houses now attracting as many as 200 would-be tenants.
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Rental property rated second best investment for returns (07 Feb 2011)
Despite falling house prices and sales, Kiwi’s love affair with rental property remains intact as it is rated the second best bet for investment returns behind term deposits.
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Housing pressures change the face of rental market (04 Feb 2011)
The black clouds of widening house affordability look like having a silver lining for landlords as a whole new demographic, priced out of home ownership, moves into private rental accommodation.
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Property shortage hurts sales, helps landlords (03 Feb 2011)
A low level of sales activity in the Auckland housing market was bucked by an active rental sector, according to Barfoot & Thompson.
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Tax changes 'essential' to remove investment property bias - SWG (01 Feb 2011)
Tax changes are "essential" to remove the distortions that favour housing as an investment over basic savings products, according to the Savings Working Group report.
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Caution remains the watchword for property - ANZ (31 Jan 2011)
December saw a further pick-up in recorded house sales, however this comes from a very low base and mortgage lending remained flat, according to the latest ANZ Property Focus.
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Bollard keeps interest rates on hold (27 Jan 2011)
Home-owners can be confident floating mortgage rates won't be rising for some time following Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard's expected decision to keep interest rates on hold.
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OCR unchanged at 3% (27 Jan 2011)
The Reserve Bank today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 3.0 percent.
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Housing market unlikely to be able to withstand rate rises (27 Jan 2011)
Despite stabilising, the housing market "remains very fragile and unlikely able to withstand rate increases for some time, particularly as house prices continue to decline," said ASB economist Nick Tuffley.
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Wellington's rental pain is Auckland's gain (25 Jan 2011)
Rental vacancies remain low in Auckland while Wellington is suffering, and across the country vacancy rates are double the level of last year as house sales continue to dawdle, according to First National Group.
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Auckland and Tauranga top New York for unaffordable houses (24 Jan 2011)
Housing in New Zealand is "severely unaffordable", with property in Auckland and Tauranga less affordable than New York, according to new research.
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Bidding wars as rentals in crisis (23 Jan 2011)
The Kiwi dream of owning a home is long out of sight for many people, and now the chances of even renting a quality house are fading fast.
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Now's a good time to buy a house (21 Jan 2011)
Buying a house this year is “fundamentally a good idea” as inflation looks set to rise around the world, according to Tower Investments chief executive Sam Stubbs.
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Report reveals stark differences in rents across Auckland (20 Jan 2011)
Auckland suburbs Remuera and Takapuna/Milford have seen rents for three bedroom properties increase by 25% over the past year, while rents for a one-bedroom property in Birkenhead have fallen 47% over the same period.
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Shaking up the Canterbury property market (18 Jan 2011)
The September 4 earthquake that struck Canterbury left over 95% of properties with no significant damage, according to a QV assessment of the regions property market.
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Little optimism in wake of REINZ report (18 Jan 2011)
Weak demand for property prompted falls in residential house prices over 2010, and tax measures preventing property investors offsetting their losses against income and other taxes saw real estate demand fall considerably, according to JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans.
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What's happening with house prices across the regions (18 Jan 2011)
House sales volumes were down across all regions in December and the median price also fell in all but three main regions, according to the Real Estate Institute.
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Sales and median price fall in December (18 Jan 2011)
December saw both residential property values and sales slide from November, though both market activity and median prices remained up on figures from earlier in the year, according to the Real Estate Institute (REINZ).
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Low sales volumes the theme for 2010 - QV (13 Jan 2011)
Residential property values continued to decline across the country in December, with values 0.9% below the same time last year, according to the latest QV Residential Property Market update.
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Landlord "screwed" by HNZ (30 Dec 2010)
Auckland property investor Ian Crayton is emphatic about the treatment he says he and other landlords have received from HNZ after signing up to its Home Leasing scheme.
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Landlords face higher rates after valuation anomalies (29 Dec 2010)
Inaccurate rating valuations have left some Hutt City commercial property owners facing excessive rates payments, claims Bayleys Valuations Chris Orchard.
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Despite a lift, housing market mood remains sombre (22 Dec 2010)
Although there has been some recovery in the housing market, though sales remain low and a mood of cautiousness remains, according to the latest ANZ Property Focus.
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LAQC changes show amazing arrogance and sloppiness: Labour (21 Dec 2010)
Government changes to tax legislation replacing the Loss Attributing Qualifying Company (LAQC) regime amounts to “a complete abuse of process and amazing arrogance and sloppiness,” claimed Labour Revenue spokesman Stuart Nash.
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Affordability can have dramatic impact: Dickens (20 Dec 2010)
The way people behave when houses become less and less affordable can have a dramatic impact on how many houses are needed to satisfy demand, Strategic Risk Analysis managing director Rodney Dickens says.
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Mortgagee sales down, focus of forced sales changes (20 Dec 2010)
Mortgagee sales have decreased in the last quarter, and the focus has moved from property investors to ordinary homeowners, according to Terralink International figures.
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