In mid-July the Reserve Bank announced new tighter restrictions on residential lending, including a requirement for no more than 5 per cent of bank lending to residential property investors to those with less than 40 per cent equity.

Two well-known Christchurch real estate companies have merged. Grenadier Real Estate Ltd, which has several offices in Canterbury, has bought 50 per cent of Riccarton-based Phoenix Real Estate Ltd. Both companies are Harcourts franchises.

Living life the tiny way could help pop the Kiwi property bubble. A miniature-but-liveable home – part of the global tiny-house movement – is for sale on Trade Me for $85,000, and even comes with its own double mezzanine floors.

Smart design, direct supply chains and offsite assembly: all ways a billion-dollar housing subdivision in Auckland's Mangere is trying to keep a lid on its prices. But it's not been easy given the shortage of builders and high cost of building materials, the project's leader says.

If you're wondering what could possibly be worse than high inflation, the answer is "very low inflation".

A humble three-bedroom home listed for rent at $950 a week has people irate as the Queenstown property market climbs ever higher. The cost per bedroom would be about $316 a week, the cost of renting a whole house in some places.

Move over Sydney and Auckland, there's a hotter property market in the southern hemisphere and it's only 2400 kilometres from Antarctica. In Queenstown, New Zealand's adventure tourism mecca and playground for the rich and famous, house prices rocketed 31 per cent in the year through September to an average price of $959,000.

Over recent years the New Zealand dollar has become a prominent traded currency in the global market place, laying claim to the 10th most traded currency in the world. As CMC markets celebrates our 10th anniversary in New Zealand, we take a closer look at what makes our dollar tick and whether it can continue its outperformance over that of much larger economies.

Your savings are peddling a tidy income and the pensioner peloton cruises in an orderly fashion. In the past it wasn't too difficult to secure deposit rates of 5 to 7 per cent without braking.

Real estate agents are advising prospective house buyers to "get amongst it", as a shortage of listings in several parts of the country starts to bite.