The Housing and Education departments have combined to plan a new development on surplus defence land at Papakura

Residential tenants may be paying as much as $9 million a year to phone companies to protect against household wiring failure, which in many cases is likely to be the responsibility of their landlords.

Small industrial units are soaking up a sizeable chunk of investment money that has traditionally gone into residential housing.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen says a rejig of tax laws may encourage investors to switch funds from long term investments like property into short term investment like the high-tech sector.

Rising petrol, building, and energy costs will drive NZ inflation to about 2.5 per cent in the June year.

With their land under-developed and mired in debt, Maori land-owners are again beginning to sell off their birthright after decades spent trying to save it.

Investors need to be aware of likely possible accounting tricks which, while perfectly legal, are still highly misleading, according to visiting expert Howard Schilit.

The past week has been one of those unusually quiet ones on the home loan rate front. For the first couple of days of the week there was not one change to report. Our experience shows that weeks like this are rare.

Q. I am interested in purchasing property to lease out under a Glasgow lease. I understand this would, if you purchase right, return most of your outlay for the property and give you an income while still retaining the land.

At the moment I have a block of three units in Auckland's Kingsland area and wish to do this. The units are under a 99-year cross lease. Can I do this with

Q. I have come to the conclusion you are anti the real estate industry. After 31 years in the profession - and yes, that is my choice - I do not believe we deserve your comments unless you can justify why fees should be less.

The increase in fees over the years is based on the inflation level of the homes, for which vendors get the benefit. Inflation also increases costs.

There are so many what-ifs to consider in financial planning that obvious things such as income can fall through the cracks.

An abundance of rental properties on the market is forcing some landlords to drop rents or leave their investment sitting empty.

When comparing actively managed and passively managed NZ share funds it is always a challenge to judge whether the "active" management is likely to add enough value to make it worthwhile. These two types of funds each have distinctive advantages and disadvantages.

Wednesday is the 20th anniversary of the coming to power of the David Lange-led Labour Government.

The building boom is a bonanza for small businesses, which are growing almost 5 per cent a year – faster than the rest of the economy.

The interest rate banks advertise do not reflect the true cost of borrowing, writes Rob Stock.