A typical house in Auckland now costs 10 times the median household income. That's Labour's latest housing horror story - the party says the internationally accepted affordability benchmark is three times median household income making a mortgage longer to pay off.

Floating mortgage rates should fall sharply over the next four months with bank economists expecting the Reserve Bank to slash the official interest rate back to 2.5 per cent. ASB is the latest bank to say it expects the central bank to cut the official cash rate (OCR) further than it previously expected. It currently stands at 3.25 per cent.

Investment banks, law firms and international infrastructure investors are showing an interest in buying state houses. On Wednesday night the Treasury released a list of those who had attended its latest roadshow on state house transfers. While the Government said it welcomed the interest, Labour said it showed the private sector was seeking to profit at the expense of taxpayers.

In this webinar we covered how to find heavily discounted and high cash flow deals, then use Xero to maximise the ongoing success of your property portfolio. By viewing this webinar you can learn how to use the latest property investing and accounting tools to build and manage a successful property investing portfolio. In this blog you will find: A video recording of the live webinar which was presented on 15 April 2015 and May 13 2015. A video recording of the Q&A session which followed the webinar. A downloadable copy of the slide deck.

Canterbury's post-quake house building boom is showing signs of waning with fewer building consents being issued for new homes in the New Zealand province. In May, 549 new homes were consented in Canterbury, down 9.3 per cent from the same month in 2014, Statistics New Zealand says.

New Zealand housing action group has penned a letter to a Gold Coast charity threatening protests if it buys state houses from the government. Australian not-for-profit Horizon Housing has shown interest in buying as many as 500 state-owned houses in New Zealand.

The possibility of New Zealand selling state-owned houses to an Australian company has NZ opposition political parties up in arms. Australian not-for-profit Horizon Housing is interested in buying as many as 500 state-owned houses in New Zealand, TV3's The Nation program reported on Saturday.

Things are looking up for home-hunters who can't afford a 20 per cent deposit, as banks increasingly relax their purse strings. Reserve Bank figures show banks loaned $484 million to low-deposit borrowers in May, up from $390m in April. That is the highest sum banks have loaned out in a month since Reserve Bank restrictions were introduced in October 2013.

The Reserve Bank has been told to stick to its knitting by the Treasury, with officials warning that rules on mortgage borrowing need to be within its mandate. In documents released on Thursday evening, Treasury officials also warned that the original loan to value restrictions put in place by the Reserve Bank may have led to more activity by property investors. It follows numerous claims that the rules have hurt first time buyers.

Iwi caught up in the stoush over using crown land for housing development are "keen to move on" and have not instigated court proceedings, says the Minister for Treaty Negotiations. In May, Housing Minister Nick Smith took media on a tour of four parcels of Auckland land that he said had potential for development.