Residential property investors in Wellington are currently more gung-ho than their Auckland counterparts.

Banks that helped customers cope with fluctuating break costs on fixed rate loans have won praise from Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown.

Fixed interest rates have risen sharply across the board recently, the Real Estate Institute says.

The spurt of increased house sales has clearly ended and the home building industry will soon face some months of decline.

The second in an occasional series on ways to reduce your mortgage.

Increasing enthusiasm for investing in residential rental properties could prove to be ill-founded.

House prices should firm around five per cent next year, according to the latest ASB Bank Quarterly Housing Report out today.

The first in an occasional series of ideas for reducing your mortgage.

Terrace housing, new Viaduct Basin developments and the America's Cup are all helping to boost the country's largest real estate region.

Heavy breathing from the Reserve Bank today means it's even more likely that floating mortgage rates will start rising again before the end of the year.

Interest rates for fixed mortgages are continuing to firm, with some three-year rates now close to eight per cent and five-year loans hitting the 8.5 per cent mark.

Sovereign Financial Services head Paul Bravo reports 80 per cent of new borrowing is now into floating rate products and just 20 per cent into fixed, compared with a 50/50 split for his company's new business only a year ago.

Reducing debt as fast as you can, tailoring your mortgage and negotiating hard with the lender...it's all good stuff and it's laid out for you in Martin Hawes' latest, Five Ways to Save More Money on your Mortgage.

Mortgage holidays may sound like a great idea, but as usual "all that glistens is not gold".

While higher interest rates and pre-election jitters have knocked back house sales, the residential property market is still more bouyant than a year ago.

Qualifications for mortgage brokers and a higher media profile for their professional body should help combat the bad press being attracted by some financial operators.