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.

The New Zealand government has introduced a bill aimed at tightening rules and scrutiny of property investors, including requiring them to provide their tax numbers and have a local bank account. The Taxation (Land Information and Offshore Persons Information) Bill, introduced on Monday by Land Information Minister Louise Upston, amends the Land Transfer Act and the Tax Administration Act to help Inland Revenue enforce the tax rules for property.

The $30 billion New Zealand Superannuation Fund is the best performing sovereign wealth fund over the past five years, generating returns of more than 17 per cent a year. Those returns easily beat all other sovereign wealth funds that publish their figures, according to a global study by JP Morgan. In the last three years alone, the fund returned an average of 21 per cent a year.

Investors in conservative KiwiSaver funds have been warned that their run of spectacular returns is at an end. Investors in conservative and default KiwiSaver funds, which are heavily invested in cash and bonds, have seen remarkably high returns in recent years, but in its first quarterly investment report, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) warns that is about to end.

A "state housing prefab unit" that arrived in an upmarket Christchurch neighbourhood overnight has residents considering legal action. The relocated house was delivered to an empty section in the Travis Country Estate in Burwood one night last week, to the surprise of many residents. It sits on the site propped up on struts and may be joined by a second house. The Christchurch City Council granted resource consent for two.