The New Zealand government and Auckland Council have added more land to a plan aimed at relieving the city's property crisis as consents begin to pick up. Eleven new areas have been added to the Auckland Housing Accord, an agreement drawn up in 2013 to open up land across the city for fast-track development of homes.

Disgruntled homeowners in New Zealand have started a class action lawsuit against government-controlled insurer Southern Response. The group's lawyer, Grant Cameron, said 47 policyholders had officially filed a case in the High Court at Christchurch on Wednesday over delays by the insurer in settling Canterbury earthquake claims.

Westpac bank is reviewing its KiwiSaver scheme's investments, after being alerted to stakes it holds in certain companies on the New Zealand Super Fund's "exclusion" list. The NZ Super Fund's exclusion list includes nine companies which it has tagged as being involved in the manufacture and supply of "cluster munitions" and, or "anti-personnel mines". But the latest annual disclosure statements from KiwiSaver schemes, show three of those excluded companies appeared in popular KiwiSaver growth funds.

Prime Minister John Key is warning investors chasing gains in the Auckland housing market they could face a "nasty surprise" as he appeared to tip a cooling of booming price increases.

Auckland's construction industry can be building an extra 10,800 properties annually within two years, a report has found. But Westpac's Outlook for Auckland residential construction says any more than that level over the next eight years will put it at risk of over-supplying the market.

Fletcher Building has met its guidance with a five per cent gain in full-year earnings before one-time charges, as strong growth in its biggest market of New Zealand offsets a weaker performance in Australia and the rest of the world. Its shares gained 1.6 per cent to $NZ7.70.

Life insurers have paid out more than $1 billion in claims for a fifth year in a row. But the rise in payouts has been outstripped by rising premiums for certain kinds of insurance.

Auckland house prices could suffer a sharp fall if funding markets were disrupted or economic conditions weakened, Standard & Poor's (S&P) says. The global ratings agency downgraded the stand-alone credit profiles of New Zealand's four biggest banks on Friday.

The Reserve Bank is "gutless" for failing to penalise a single rule-breaking bank over the last decade says a banking expert. Banks have breached their conditions of registration at least nine times over the last five years, with comprehensive records not collected prior to 2009.

New Zealand house prices epped up to an unseasonally high volume in July, although there was a pause in the rocketing upward trend for Auckland prices. Auckland's median house price fell by 2.6 per cent to $NZ735,000 ($A659,607), compared to June, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.