No interest loans designed to give low-income Aucklanders an alternative to borrowing from loan sharks are now being made. It's the second stage of the Community Finance Initiative pilot project financed by BNZ, which started making low interest loans in August last year.

Banks are reporting a surge in interest from customers keen on drawing down their KiwiSaver accounts to help pay for their first home. New rules which came into effect at the start of the month mean first-time buyers who have been enrolled in KiwiSavers for three years can now cash-up their entire KiwiSaver balance, minus the Government's $1000 "Kickstart" contribution to fund their first home.

The Government has effectively left nothing "undone" to tackle sky-rocketing house prices in Auckland, Finance Minister Bill English says English acknowledged the city's importance as New Zealand's largest, but noted the "manageable" housing markets in the rest of the country. "Two-thirds of New Zealand doesn't live in Auckland and actually their housing issues are pretty manageable.

The heated Auckland property market is being pitched to foreign buyers in Singapore and Malaysia as an "property investor's dream". A radio ad by Property Solutions Singapore, a subsidiary of a New Zealand based company, said Aucklanders spent around half their week's wages in rent, and that "could be paid to you". It highlighted the lack of property taxes in New Zealand, and claimed the Auckland market was very affordable.

New Zealand's Treasury secretary Gabriel Makhlouf is rejecting a capital gains tax to reduce demand in the Auckland property market, saying it's a supply-side problem. "We need to build more houses to meet the need we've got," he said on TV3's The Nation programme on Saturday.

New Zealand's Treasury secretary Gabriel Makhlouf is rejecting a capital gains tax to reduce demand in the Auckland housing market, saying it's a supply-side problem. "We need to build more houses to meet the need we've got," he said on TV3's The Nation programme on Saturday.

The average asking price for an Auckland home reached a record $716,050 in March according to Trade Me's Property Price index. While the national average asking price grew by around $40,000 over the last year, Auckland's had doubled that rate with a $85,300 rise. This price puts a 20 per cent deposit at $143,210.

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The Reserve Bank says house prices are "particularly stretched" in Auckland, and is calling for the Government to look at untaxed capital gains on investment property. The Reserve Bank would like to see "fresh consideration" of possible policy measures to address the tax-preferred status of housing, especially housing investment, Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Grant Spencer said in a speech about housing at the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce.

Cheap petrol, high consumer confidence and good summer weather were a hot recipe for shoppers to splash out in March. Retail spending in March was up a solid 0.8 per cent on February, seasonally adjusted, almost matching the 1.1 per cent gain in February.