A crash in the Auckland housing market is one of the biggest risks to New Zealand's economy over the next few years, Finance Minister Bill English says. Speaking to a community housing sector conference in Wellington on Friday, Mr English said a fall in house prices would cause problems and he's worried Auckland will follow the same track as "pretty much every other housing market" where prices have gone up year on year.

Auckland is highlighted as one of the world's top investment choices for commercial real estate. International property consultancy JLL says Auckland placed second, behind Sydney, in its latest "investment intensity index" for the Asia-Pacific region.

The BNZ Confidence Survey has found that in most sectors respondents are seeing things as either steady or improving. Construction and engineering are strong, manufacturing doing well, farming is weak but dairy farmers are pulling back from the brink. The Auckland residential real estate market is cooling, but elsewhere things look firm

Auckland housing rents have risen 8.5 per cent in the last year, but rents have climbed the most in the Bay of Plenty.

Investors are looking at towns other than Auckland for property bargains, writes Susan Edmunds. Inflated house prices and stricter lending rules are prompting Auckland property investors to look outside the city for their next purchases.

Love or hate our "bright" new $5 and $10 banknotes launched today, they are a sign that we are still in love with cash. Predictions of New Zealand becoming a cashless society have proven ill-founded, and the launch of the new notes, which will be followed by new $20, $50 and $100 denominations next year, shows it is still worth investing in modern, hard-to-forge bills.

Housing affordability is improving, a new Massey University report shows, but its authors do not expect that to last. The latest Massey University Home Affordability Report shows some improvement in affordability figures over the past three months, due mainly to falling mortgage rates and static house prices. "Even Auckland falls in line with this trend – affordability in our largest city has improved by 4.9 per cent since our last report in June," Massey University senior property lecturer Susan Flint-Hartle said. "Having said that, affordability in Auckland has still decreased by 16.6 per cent over the past 12 months." The report, which covers the period from June to August, shows home affordability across New Zealand improved by 2.3 per cent over the quarter, but the national index still shows a year-on-year decline of 6.7 per cent. "While affordability trends show some improvement in this report, the relative levels of affordability across the country haven't really changed much. You must remember that these small improvements are coming off the back of historic levels of unaffordability," Flint-Hartle said. She did not expect affordability to continue to improve. "It's a bit of a lull caused mainly by lower interest rates. That makes people think their monthly payments are less and they can afford more. It initially has the effect of improving affordability but if it continues it is likely to draw more people into the market which stimulates demand. It's a bit of a double-edged sword." Looming tax changes, which will mean any investor who buys and sells within two years will pay a capital gains tax, could delay further house price rises, she said. Auckland remains 52 per cent "less affordable" than the national average – down slightly from 56 per cent last quarter, but still close to that historic high. Regional movements in affordability have largely been driven by house prices. Central Otago Lakes, Southland, Manawatu/Wanganui, Northland and Taranaki, which experienced the largest improvements in affordability, also had the largest falls in house prices. "The only region not to show some improvement over the past three months was Nelson/Marlborough, where house prices increased by the largest margin," Flint-Hartle said. Flint-Hartle said young borrowers who had taken out large mortgages to get into the market would feel the squeeze once interest rates started to rise again. But she said that was likely still some time off and many had fixed their loans over long terms to guard against it.

Banks are offering interest rates available below 5 per cent across most loan terms. For six-month terms, ASB and BNZ have the best rate of the major banks, at 4.99 per cent. Fix for a year and you can get 4.35 per cent from ASB and BNZ.

The Government has invited developers to express interest in building houses on Crown land in Auckland. Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said it was interested in hearing from private developers that had the resources to build a minumum of 100 new homes, on top of any work they were already carrying out.

Here is the lasted BNZ new zealand market outlook, which includes: Migration inflows remain stellar putting upward pressure on housing and unemployment While providing a safety net for the softening economy Fonterra result to confirm improving outlook? As past price pressure batters the trade balance