A horror mortgagee sale mix-up has resulted in a woman losing all her possessions. Her home was sold after she missed payments on the mortgage, but a case note from the Banking Ombudsman scheme reveals, the bank brought forward the settlement date without telling her.

A group representing apartment and unit owners is concerned about the misuse of drones to peep into people's private lives. Strata Community Association NZ backs the use of drones being used to inspect high rise residential apartment buildings across the country.

Four people have been charged in relation to alleged mortgage fraud involving home loans worth about $60 million. The Serious Fraud Office has laid more than 100 charges under the Secret Commissions Act following an investigation into more than 70 home loans allegedly deceptively obtained from two banks.

New Zealand buyers may have lost some of their "must buy now at all costs" mentality. Realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said some of the urgency had come out of the housing market, as she released her site's statistics for September.

New Zealand's property market seems to be in a holding pattern as investors and home-buyers wait to see what will happen next. Property data firm MyValocity has released its latest report, which shows double-digit house price growth in much of the country, particularly in centres around Auckland. Tauranga's house prices are up 27.8 per cent, year-on-year. Hamilton was up 26.4 per cent. Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were up 8 per cent, 12.9 per cent and down 0.5 per cent respectively. READ MORE: Sellers wait for a premium while buyers take their time: Realestate.co.nz James Wilson, a valuer at MyValocity, said there had been a flock of investors to the regions when the Reserve Bank imposed stricter lending rules on Auckland investors. Now that a 40 per cent deposit is required wherever they are in the country, he said it would take time to see what effect that had. "It is harder to see where they are going. We we can really see is the 'wait and see' approach has come back into play, investors are holding fire to see what the market does, what happens to prices and days to sell," he said. "It doesn't necessarily mean we are going to see the market go down, just that activity levels are dropping off. There's still low interest rate sand low supply but house prices will hold their own until activity comes back in." Nationwide, the number of investors and movers in the market dropped slightly over the past three months, while first-home buyer numbers remained constant. MyValocity said Aucklanders were driving a lot of the growth in Tauranga, which had become sought-after by retirees, investors and homeowners who wanted to find more affordable property. Its properties are now selling at an average 35.7 per cent above their CV and there are now almost as many investors in the market as there are first-home buyers. Wilson said that was probably partly driven by the fact that "Forty per cent of an investment in Auckland versus 40 per cent outside is a far lower sum." Hamilton had also been a popular option for Auckland homeowners looking for cheaper property, the MyValocity data said. There, investors are a bigger part of the market than first-home buyers. Dunedin has also benefited from being an affordable spot - more than 90 per cent of sales there are going for less than $600,000.

Recent migrants to New Zealand are sharing rooms with strangers to save money in Auckland. Most advertisements seeking flatmates in Auckland for what would be considered cheaper rent, under $130 per week, are for spaces with two single beds, in a sparse bedroom or curtained-off corner of a communal living area.

Middle class Aucklanders are becoming "disenfranchised" by the cost of housing in the city, according to prominent businessman Michael Stiassny. Stiassny, who is chairman of Vector and senior partner of KordaMentha, told an Auckland University Business School panel on Monday that Auckland's property market is undermining the sustainability of the city.

Nearly 80 per cent of renters across New Zealand lack the resources for a home deposit, according to new figures which Labour says shows many Kiwis are locked out of the market. However, Housing Minister Nick Smith says the numbers are "no surprise", and have not significantly worsened in recent years.

A mortgage adviser has backed calls from the Property Institute of New Zealand for first home buyers to be exempt from loan-to-value restrictions. On Monday, the group which represented property valuers and commercial property managers said the restrictions had been a devastating failure which allowed property investors to snap up homes which families might have otherwise bought. Statistics New Zealand figures released last week showed nearly 80 per cent of renters in New Zealand lacked the resources for a home deposit. Under Reserve Bank rules, home buyers required a 20 per cent deposit. Mortgage Express chief executive Sarah Johnston said she agreed with a move to exempt first home buyers from the restrictions. Auckland was approaching a point whereby people would have to be subsidised to live there, she said. "I'm totally concerned that we are just seeing the rich get richer. "We're not seeing people in Auckland being able to get on the ladder at all, and yet that's where the work is." The Reserve Bank released data on Monday which said lending to property investors in Auckland had fallen 18 per cent last month, after new lending restrictions were introduced the month before. These included a requirement no more than 5 per cent of bank lending go to residential property investors with less than 40 per cent equity, and a measure to force banks to sharply restrict their loans to owner-occupiers with less than a 20 per cent deposit. The Reserve Bank data said lending to owner-occupiers in Auckland also fell last month, to $1.86 billion from 1.88b. Total lending across the country fell 3 per cent, to $6.11b. Johnston said there needed to be a fundamental look at how first home buyers and what she called second chancers - someone who had owned a home but for whatever reason did not anymore - could get into the property market. Earlier this year, changes were made to the HomeStart Grant scheme which increased the caps for a house to $650,000 in Auckland, and $550,000 in the rest of the country. Income caps were also increased from $80,000 to $85,000 for a single person and from $120,000 to $130,000 for a couple. The changes would also be applied to the Welcome Home Loans, which enabled first home buyers to buy with a 10 per cent deposit while being exempt from LVR ratio limits. Johnston said these changes were unfair on professionals who had studied, got a big student loan, but after paying it off were not in a position to buy because their income was above the cap. She said incomes should be tested at the beginning to mitigate concerns around any possible increase to interest rates. But most people would not default on their own home, she said, with there being far more risk in giving a loan for cars or other cheaper assets. "Let them have their first home, don't means test them on income. "They will do everything and anything they can (to meet mortgage payments), what's the risk?"

Calls from tax expert John Shewan to radically expand the disclosure rules on foreign trusts will be implemented, Prime Minister John Key says. In his report, released on Monday, Shewan said the current rules were inadequate and "not fit for purpose" to preserve New Zealand's reputation as a country that co-operates with others to counter "money laundering and aggressive tax practices".