Strong property sales but prices lower
Auckland's biggest real estate agency recorded its strongest January in four years but prices were still down on December.Barfoot & Thompson's data for last month showed 683 sales, down on December's 714, and prices down from December's...

Realistic rents fill space in Hamilton
Realistic rents and building upgrades are credited with filling up retail space in Hamilton's central city.There are fewer empty shops in the CBD than at any time in the past three years, with mainly food and fashion retailers moving...

Forever around the pool in Omaha
In line with the old adage of you get out what you put in, this Omaha waterfront home has been an easy-care, low-maintenance holiday escape for an Auckland family for a decade, largely thanks to their efforts when the house was designed...

Students find rent a hurdle
Record high rents are pushing some young people to cancel university studies and others to sign up for welfare grants.As the academic year dawned, Auckland's biggest student union said steep accommodation costs had a big impact...

Land grab: All white by us
On a weekday afternoon, Gulf Harbour is deathly quiet. That is until a bunch of schoolboys - still wearing knee-high socks - pull up in an ageing Japanese hatchbacks and head out to the jetty with boxes of beer under their arms. As...