Kiwis desperate for Christmas cash are paying hidden interest rates of almost 500 per cent to loan sharks for last-minute festive funds.

Up to 15 illegal accommodation operators in Blenheim are stealing business from backpacker hostels, says a newly formed group.

Southland's real estate market showed no sign of slowing, with November one of the best months on record, an industry spokesman said.

As many as 90 per cent of sprinkler systems in New Zealand buildings are faulty but are being signed off as safe, a damning Fire Service report leaked to The Dominion Post says.

The big banks' recent and aggressive battle for mortgage market share looks to be fading with at least three bumping up their two-year fixed rates.

Housing New Zealand has evicted tenants on Stoke's Orchard St in an effort to clean up the area, which Nelson MP Nick Smith has likened to a Bronx ghetto.

Opponents of a Mitre 10 Mega store planned for the former Honda factory site in Annesbrook say the development will suck the life from central Nelson and reduce opportunities for future industrial development.

High interest rates are winning new depositors and higher visibility for finance companies, but are not winning significant market share from banks.

Tongaporutu's baches are likely to stay put. The Hearings Commission of the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) yesterday recommended 25 of the 26 baches on the Tongaporutu Recreation Reserve be issued with new 10-year leases.

Whether it’s an expat buying up chunks of coastline online, youngsters getting into their first shonky inner-city apartment, or Mr and Mrs Average watching the value of their suburban abode skyrocket, the property boom has made many New Zealanders a whole lot wealthier than they were three years ago.

Listed property owner AMP NZ Office Trust (Anzo) today announced plans to raise about $30 million in a placement to local and offshore institutional investors.

A third of the 153-unit Sacramento housing complex in Botany Downs, Auckland, is so rotten that it must be bulldozed and rebuilt.

Auckland's population may go past two million by 2031 - two decades earlier than planners picked just five years ago.

Traditionally diversified portfolios have been allocated around the following asset classes: of international and domestic equities, international and domestic fixed interest, property and cash.

The scintillating performance of the New Zealand economy since 2000 is putting us in a position to reclaim the title "the lucky country" from the Australians.

Q: I own several apartments as investments but I have been frustrated with the different way the apartment blocks are managed. Some of my recent problems are:

* The amount of money I have to pay to the body corporate for some of my apartments is too big for the services I get in return.

* I just bought two units in an apartment block and now I have been stung with