Newmarket business owners are angry at Auckland City Council's lack of action after last month's flash flooding.

Ruapehu District councillors have confirmed a rate increase of 4.57 percent over last year.

Sun, Sand, Beach, Bach. Ask any New Zealander where they really,really want to be and odds are it will be near the sea.

The singer of American band System of a Down has failed in his bid to buy a west coast beach property and develop a recording studio.

Churches and charities have sold out of another 11 rest homes including Auckland's Roskill Masonic Village.

Small investors will suffer if the government's capital gains tax proposals make it into law unchanged, tax experts say.

Q: I am 44 with two kids, 7 and 9. I have savings of $100,000 but do not own a house. My income is about $1600 a month, which just covers my expenses. My rental is about $200 a week. I am concerned about my ability to own a house and put the kids through school and retire. What would you propose?

Australians will see their wealth decline for the first time since the last recession as housing prices fall, investment bank ABN AMRO has warned.

It wasn't so long ago that US$100m (NZ$146m) was regarded as a ludicrous price to pay to make a movie, even a star-studded Hollywood blockbuster. Now the time is drawing near when US$100m might look like a reasonable amount of money to shell out for a house.

Some three years ago, many commentators were forecasting the end of the era of big returns from share and bond markets and the beginning of a period of more moderate, single-digit returns.

New Zealanders now have more than $9.1 billion invested in finance company debentures, according to interest.co.nz.

More people are eligible for home loan help under the new Welcome Home Loan programme, the Government said today.

A teenage property developer has almost forced celebrity raconteur Jim Hopkins to evacuate after illegally excavating a 9m hole up to the edge of his house.

Q. You mentioned in last weekend's Herald a friend who is thinking of selling her house and renting, in anticipation of a decline in the house market. I have seen this idea come around the track several times but have never heard of anyone who succeeded at it.

It was rare to see such dissension in a council that is normally unanimous in its decisions.

In the latest twist in a long-running legal saga over a Pakiri Beach development site, the Court of Appeal has ruled Rodney District Council can keep a $1.6 million cash bond that the developers wanted back.