A change to Auckland high school zones is expected to drive house prices up even further, a real estate organisation says. Real Estate Institute of New Zealand chief executive Bindi Norwell said it was understandable schools may need to stop out-of-zone applications as the region's population continued to grow.

New Zealand rent has stayed stagnant for almost a year, according to Trade Me.

Auckland could be headed for a multi-year shortage of new apartments after a bulge of new projects comes to completion next year.

Law changes requiring landlords to place smoke alarms in all rental properties and insulate them within three years are the most significant tenancy changes in decades, Housing Minister Nick Smith says. However, Labour says a failure to place heating standards into the rules means they are not enough to help families living in cold homes.

An economist is bewildered Auckland's million-dollar Tamaki Dr waterfront strip does not have "line to line skyscrapers" like the Gold Coast. Former Reserve Bank chairman Arthur Grimes said during a panel on the future of Auckland housing that he grew up in Kohimarama and he could "not understand why that whole area from Orakei to St Heliers is not like the Gold Coast".