Timaru house sales have done it again, setting yet another record high for the value of homes sold in a single month.

An active government sector will cushion Wellington from an expected house price slowdown, but values elsewhere could drop up to 8 per cent in the next two years, a new forecast says.

An Australian bank is taking the same path Bank of New Zealand has aggressively embarked on and has decided to stop dealing with mortgage brokers.

The latest housing market statistics show a somewhat contradictory picture of house prices hitting new records at while the number of sales fell sharply and the number of days it takes to sell a house increasing.

Auckland and Wellington property prices continued to increase strongly during April in a month of sometimes puzzling fluctuations, according to the National President of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Inc), Mr Graeme Woodley.

Q. Barbara asks: Can you explain what the dividend columns in the newspaper sharemarket table mean? Are there any underlying messages hidden in dividends?

Barbara Kendall asks: You mentioned the price/earnings (P/E) ratio last week when we talked about growth investing and value investing. What's so special about P/E?

A report on New Zealand's five main banks shows these Australian-owned institutions are bleeding customers heavily to New Zealand institutions, in particular state-owned Kiwibank.

Listed property fund AMP New Zealand Office Trust (Anzo) today announced a net surplus of $26.3 million for the nine months to March 31 this year, a 2.95% increase on the same period last year.

Thirty-three submissions have been lodged opposing an apartment block on the edge of Takapuna Beach, on land surrounded by a city reserve.

A plan to build affordable housing in Motueka will make home ownership a reality for more people, Tasman mayor John Hurley says.

The West Coast's largest private coalmine has received a $4.6 million boost that will enable it to double production and create jobs.

Mortgage broking aggregator Plan New Zealand will be aiming to raise the standards of its member brokers as a response to both an expected slowdown in the housing market and to the emergence of cut-price aggregators in Australia.

Umbrella organisation The Mortgage Alliance is in the process of being dissolved after less than two years following management and shareholding changes at its largest member, Mortgage Link.

Dunedin do-it-yourself shoppers should by this time next year be checking out the 45,000 stock lines to be carried by the $10 million Mitre 10 megastore being built in the city.

Develop Silverdale, not Orewa, Rodney councillor Wayne Walker says. Orewa will be underwater in his lifetime and endured a tidal wave when Maori lived there hundreds of years ago.