Owners of baches at Urenui and Onaero fear they will have to sell up because the skyrocketing leases are beyond their finances.

The positive margin between immigrants & emigrants dropped from 1600 a year ago to just 300 in December, reducing the net annual inflow of migrants by 57%, from 34,900 in 2003 to 15,100.

The commercial building boom is moving at a blistering pace, with $8.6 billion worth of work planned for the next three years.

For the first time in 18 months more people think it is a good time to buy a house than not, says a ASB Bank housing confidence survey.

ASB Bank’s latest survey of housing confidence is likely to send shivers up spines at the Reserve Bank.

Shares in Fletcher Building have jumped over 6 per cent after the company today reported a larger than expected half year profit and upped its forecast for the full year.

On a day when shares in the country's largest construction and building products company jumped 10 per cent on a bullish outlook, a BNZ economist predicted a recession in the residential building sector.

A great light has gone out. Dunedin's infamous "Pink Pussy", once second only to the Scarfies mansion in its dilapidated pink exterior and the wolf-whistling coming from the crumbling window frames, is now two-toned beige. It has a stove that works, a new toilet, carpet and 100 fewer beer bottles thrown into its various nooks and crannies.

The collapse of online share broker Access Brokerage hasn't dented Kiwis' enthusiasm for trading shares over the internet.

New Zealand's high, consumption-based economic growth of the last decade, funded by foreign borrowing, will not lead to permanent higher living standards, according to an independent think-tank report.

AMP NZ Office Trust's (ANZO's) earnings per unit continue to grow as a result of strong portfolio performance and favourable market conditions.

Their house will withstand earthquakes and hurricanes - and it's made of pumice.

"You're setting the unitholders up to be screwed," said investor Peter Kammler in Auckland late last week.

An Albany real estate principal has welcomed the arrival of a cut-price house seller, saying home owners will benefit.

North Taranaki leaseholders face massive rental increasesas rocketing land values force leases up.

The company responsible for leasing containers to house foreign workers in Lyttelton has denied accusations the accommodation is substandard.