Investors should snap up properties around the newly-announced special housing areas, one property commentator says.

Turnover continued to drop in August, the latest Real Estate Institute statistics reveal.

The usual surge in new home listings on to the market in August is noticeably weaker this year, Realestate.co.nz says.

Christchurch is still leading the country’s annual rental price gains, the latest Department of Building and Housing quarterly report shows.

New auctions and written sales were down significantly in August compared to the year before in Harcourts’ Northern region.

The Productivity Commission has been asked to investigate ways to improve the way local authorities regulate to make land available for housing.

Few property investors have any budget set aside for maintenance, the latest Crockers market research shows.

Buying a leasehold apartment could be a wise move at the moment, one apartment specialist says.

New builds are selling well in Auckland, which may be because they are exempt from the LVR restrictions, QV says.

Barfoot and Thompson is blaming the looming election for a slowdown in the Auckland property market.

Compared to rents and incomes, New Zealand houses are among the most overvalued in the world, Economist magazine says.

Kiwibank has not had to cut its lending to first-home buyers as a result of the loan-to-value restrictions, a spokesman says.

July’s building consent figures have been held up by the Government as proof that its initiatives are working.

Giving tenants automatic rights of renewal on all leases will unfairly disadvantage landlords, the NZ Property Investors Federation says.

Property investors wanting to sell one of their properties to release capital should first be clear how much money their bank will let them pocket, the Banking Ombudsman has warned.

The Green Party has unveiled a package of housing proposals designed to make life better for the country’s tenants, including rights of renewal on all tenancies.