Houses wiped out by recent flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle could be into the thousands and while the timing and magnitude of the impacts of these events is uncertain the direction is not.

The number of listings last month on the country’s oldest real estate website fell to the lowest for 16 years.

Despite headwinds, retail is bouncing back after three years of buffeting by Covid, declining house prices and a now softer economy.

Asking prices for houses more than doubled in more than half of the country’s districts over the decade 2013-2022.

As interest rates rise and house prices start to come down, mum-and-dad property investors are contemplating whether to sell their investment properties in the expectation that times may get tougher, says Drew Miller, a Ray White Mairangi Bay agent.

Tenants are having to dig deeper into their wallets to pay their rent.

Regular rental property inspections are beneficial for both landlords and tenants, says rental management agency Crockers.

More people are losing money on the resale of their properties than they have been at any time in the past three years.

New Property Investors Federation president Sue Harrison says despite the Government using private investors as a means to prop up their tax coffers which comes at the expense of tenants, the private property rental market is too important to fail.

January house sales plunged to their lowest levels ever, excluding the first pandemic lockdown in 2020 when buyers and sellers came to a virtual standstill.

Any hopes property values are stabilising have been quashed by a 1.1% fall in January, QV data shows.

New Zealand now has more property managers than it has drivers, cooks or architects, census data shows.

With the cost of living crisis and rapidly increasing interest rates, times are hard for landlords and renters alike.

Investors are still finding it tough after the increasing number of hurdles put in front of them.

The Auckland Property Investors Association is asking tenancy groups to refrain from politicking after the anniversary weekend floods.

The scale of Auckland’s flooding damage could be in the range of $500 million plus and increase construction costs as well as inflation.