The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) statistics are out now. Use the links in the story below to find out how your region has been faring at the beginning of the new year.

Home loan rates are falling sharply as lenders follow the lead set by the Reserve Bank’s reductions in the official cash rate. But cheap does not necessarily mean easy.

Tax is a monster at the best of times. Diana Clement checks out the IRD’s website, and online forms and tools for their usefulness for property investors.

Property investors, brokers and the Banking Ombudsman are calling on banks to stop double dipping on mortgage break fees.

The beginning of 2009 has seen house prices drop throughout the country, according to the latest QV Valuation statistics.

New Zealand property values dropped 8.3% in the three months to January from a year earlier and sales remained at low levels, suggesting a weak economy and tighter lending criteria may be deterring buyers.

It is a great time to be a borrower with plenty of equity stored up in a property. If you timed your last decision about a mortgage right, which means that you will have borrowing due for renewal this year, you can expect to be able to choose from some record low rates.

Auckland property prices fell last month and the average price dropped from the same month of 2008, according to Barfoot & Thompson, the city’s biggest real estate firm.

Property investors adding a deck or some similar renovation to their property should have a much less difficult issue with resource consents.

New Zealand home-building approvals fell to a record low last month in a sign that sliding borrowing costs haven’t yet revived demand in an economy buffeted by its first recession in a decade.

Living off the Smell of an Oily Rag has been an outstanding success since it was first published in 1991. Since then the books have become best sellers and been published as a syndicated column throughout New Zealand in some 30 community newspapers from Kaitaia to Invercargill.

The Reserve Bank today reduced the official cash rate (OCR) from 5.0% to 3.5%.

New Zealand’s unemployment rate, set to rise this year, will likely sap demand for housing, offsetting the benefits of falling mortgage rates, according to ANZ bank’s Property Focus report.

Low bank interest rates have seen an influx of people switching their money from bank deposits to rental properties.

Residential sections within the Pacific Cliffs subdivision, the Gulf Harbour development north of Auckland, are going up for mortgagee sale.

Lenders have been furiously cutting mortgage rates over the past week as they anticipate a big cut in the official cash rate (OCR) next week.