Dunedin stories
Westland is the country's most affordable area, with house prices at just 3.2 times income and rent and deposits well below national norms.
Affordability pressures are starting to bite, with Hamilton and Rotorua both posting quarterly falls after a rapid run-up in values.
Borrowers face tighter lending rules as the Reserve Bank moves to curb risky loans amid house values rising 1.8% in July.
Projects that kept ferries running, roads safer and power supply secure were among the winners at Civil Contractors New Zealand’s awards in Wellington.
Values are already falling in Gisborne, New Plymouth and Napier as nationwide house-price growth cools and rate rises loom.
Cheaper provincial suburbs have driven New Zealand's property boom, with Manunui up 51.8% and Hargest selling in just six days.
The funding will create hundreds of jobs and lift freight reliability as ageing locomotives and wagons are replaced nationwide.
Government help may be needed as first-time purchasers’ share of the market falls to its lowest level since 2018, CoreLogic says.
Average household incomes rose just 1.3% last quarter, leaving New Zealand house prices at their least affordable level since records began in 2004.
A Dunedin court has fined a plumbing firm and its director after a bathroom heater installation caused a 12-year-old boy’s carbon monoxide death.
Possible tighter rules could curb investor demand as mortgaged buyers regain a 27% share of the housing market, CoreLogic says.
Drone surveying and machine control kept workers off a 70% slope, helping the port slip-remediation finish safely and almost exactly to design.
Nationwide house prices climbed 1.3% in October as low rates and scarce listings kept demand ahead of supply.
Nationwide property values rose 0.8% in September as low rates and scarce listings kept demand firm despite the economic downturn.
Rents are falling in Queenstown and other pockets, but most areas are still posting gains as the recession deepens and job losses loom.
Property values have already slipped nationwide, with tourism-dependent centres like Queenstown hardest hit as the recession starts to bite.
Queenstown looks most exposed, with tourism reliance and Airbnb saturation making its property market vulnerable to a COVID-19 downturn.
A new report has reinforced pressure on ministers to back council infrastructure spending, after all eight cities were classed as severely unaffordable.
Construction firms in the south will get more local support as new purpose-built training rooms open in Dunedin.
Higher borrowing demand and scant listings pushed New Zealand’s national median house price to a record NZD $630,000 in November.
