Property price rises have eased for the first time since March but experts say it is still too early to signal a market slowdown, despite interest-rate increases and falling investor returns.

AMP Property Portfolio is nearing the minimum 50 per cent target in its takeover of Capital Properties.

After months of defying economists' expectations, the housing market finally appears to have cooled a little in the past month.

Thousands of mum and dad investors could lose money through finance company failures if mooted Reserve Bank curbs on mortgage lending succeeded in cooling the housing market, a leading fund manager said yesterday.

The latest instalment of one of the world's glitziest estate sales is about to unfold at the Colorado ranch of the late publishing magnate, Malcolm Forbes.

The sharp increase in fees earned by the managers of Macquarie Goodman Property Trust were well deserved as they had been earned by higher profit, says a major fund manager.

A Kiwi living in London moved to Wanganui after buying a home on the internet, writes Lucy Richmond.

Q. On the topic of income splitting, raised last week, my question is: Why do people put down and tend to pick on people who are self-employed or running their own businesses?

Homebuyers could find it harder to get a mortgage as the Government studies ways to curb lending to cool the housing market and control inflation.

Cindy and Rashaad Vahed would have left New Zealand if they had failed to buy their own home.

Economist Gareth Morgan says Reserve Bank plans to rein in housing market would be a return to "Muldoonism"

Talk of tough moves to harness property investors may be just that - talk.

Napier's property owners can look forward to good news when they open up Quotable Value's mail-out next week.

Western Bay landowners are about to get an early Christmas present _ news that their official land valuations have, on average, more than doubled in the past three years.

Press Release: Public Trust

Borrowing more for ritzy renovations may seem sensible but it can lose you money in the end, writes Fiona Tyndall.