Like any successful politician, Prime Minister John Key knows a week is a long time in politics, writes Bernard Hickey.

Walt Glazer asks whether Auckland should become the Hong Kong of the South Pacific or remain a Kiwi oasis of security for the future.

Auckland homeowners are finding themselves unable to sell, because they can't find another place to buy due to a listings drought.

First-home buyers struggling to get on the property ladder are turning to new builds, which fall outside the high loan-to-value-ratio restrictions.

Banks are tipped to drop interest rates to new lows as competition to attract house hunters and homeowners escalates into an all-out mortgage war.

The Reserve Bank's indication that its next interest rate move could be down is expected to reinforce a decline in fixed mortgage rates.

More interest rates have been cut following a week of competition by the country's biggest banks to attract house hunters and mortgage holders.

Banks have started cutting interest rates as the busy house-hunting season heats up. So how will it affect would-be home-buyers?

A life-time of renting is becoming a reality for many New Zealanders, a survey shows, as the need for large deposits and big mortgages block their way to home ownership.

Auckland homeowners made wealthy by their latest Auckland Council valuations are borrowing to do up their houses.

New residential mortgage lending hit $4.9 billion last month, its highest level since last March and a 7.2 per cent increase on October last year, according to the Reserve Bank.

Thousands of homeowners are paying higher interest rates on their mortgages than they need to - but many may not realise it.

Mike Pero has successfully stopped a major law firm acting in a court case brought against him by the mortgage business.

Getting a mortgage is much harder than it was before the global financial crisis. No longer will banks lend willy-nilly.

Auckland has the nation's highest rate of homeowners still paying off their mortgages and the lowest proportion who own their home mortgage-free.

An entire industry has grown around handing low-income earners a lifeline to the material rewards of middle-class life, but it comes at a hidden price.

Auckland Council will tomorrow release new valuations for more than 220 suburbs across the region for three-yearly review of CVs.

Canadian migrant Genevieve Westcott remembers the 20.5 per cent mortgage rates of the 1980s.

New Zealanders are paying some of the highest interest rates in the OECD, our house buyers saddled with the punitive prices due to the regime attempting to stop runaway inflation.

A large part of Generation Y might have to wait until they receive an inheritance before they can buy a house, a property commentator says.

An increasing number of Aucklanders are looking at getting 80 per cent-plus mortgages to build homes in the south and west.

Thousands of Kiwis desperate to get on the property ladder are signing up to 30-year mortgages - but many are saddling themselves with a lifetime of debt.

David Hamilton and his fiancee Lyna Pen are in their 20s but hope to be mortgage-free within 10 years.