By Rebecca Howard Aug. 13 (BusinessDesk) - Summerset Group reported a slightly lower first half net profit as valuation gains for the retirement village operator and developer continued to ease but its total assets jumped to more than $3 billion.  Underlying earnings, which...

By Jenny Ruth Aug. 12 (BusinessDesk) - The number of mortgage borrowers with debt-to-income ratios greater than five has fallen to 31 percent in June from 37 percent two years earlier, according to new data the Reserve Bank is collecting. A slightly higher percentage, 33 pe...

By Jenny Ruth Aug. 7 (BusinessDesk) - Falling house prices in Auckland continue to keep a lid on national house price inflation although some regions are still posting double-digit price increases. Prices across the Auckland region were down 2.6 percent in July on average c...

By Jenny Ruth Aug. 2 (BusinessDesk) - Auckland’s biggest realtor says there was a “modest but definite” shift in the housing market in July when property prices fell but sales numbers rose. “The modest fall in both average and median prices in the month was enough to unlock...

By Jenny Ruth Aug. 1 (BusinessDesk) - Augusta Capital wants to increase assets under management to $3 billion by its 2022 financial year, the property and investment manager told its annual shareholders’ meeting. Augusta had $2 billion in assets under management at March 31...

By Jenny Ruth Aug. 1 (BusinessDesk) - The value of New Zealand’s listed property stocks has risen 60 percent on average since they bottomed in 2012 and they are now trading about 18 percent above their net tangible asset backing. That suggests the market expects the value o...

By Rebecca Howard July 30 (BusinessDesk) - The Auckland region consented a record number of new homes in the 12 months to June 30 but nationwide the number of new consents remains below all-time highs.  In the 12 months to June,  the actual number of new dwellings consented...

By Pattrick Smellie July 29 (BusinessDesk) - Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters rejects suggestions the protests over historic Maori stonefields at Ihumatao, near Auckland Airport, are today's equivalent to the Bastion Point protest of the mid-1970s, although he does describ...

By Rebecca Howard July 26 (BusinessDesk) - The number of home transfers to overseas buyers continued to fall in the June quarter, although inner Auckland homes garnered some interest.  There were 183 home transfers to people who didn’t hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa...

By Rebecca Howard July 25 (BusinessDesk) - The Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society told the parliamentary environment select committee significant changes to land use are essential to reach proposed emission reduction targets. Forest & Bird argued the targets contained i...

By Paul McBeth July 18 (BusinessDesk) - Asset Plus has sold its Heinz Watties distribution centre in Hastings for $29.1 million to a property syndication which it will underwrite for a fee.  The real estate investor signed an unconditional agreement with E+O Property Syndic...

By Rebecca Howard July 17 (BusinessDesk) - Arvida Group attracted about 86.5 percent uptake in an underwritten offer to existing investors and will now hold a shortfall bookbuild to bridge the difference. The retirement home operator said it raised about $79.3 million of th...

By Victoria Young July 15 (BusinessDesk) - Overseas investors who paid $13 million for five hectares of land in Auckland have been told to pay $300,000 to the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) and sell the 117-lot development they started within two years.  In a decision rel...

(fixes headline and first sentence reference to hotel portfolio value. Adds new second sentence) By Victoria Young July 15 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand’s $42 billion Superannuation Fund will invest into a $300 million portfolio of hotels owned by local firms, as it eyes fur...

By Rebecca Howard July 12 (BusinessDesk) - Fewer houses are selling and it’s taking longer to sell them, data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand shows. The number of residential properties sold across New Zealand fell to 5,978  in June, down 3.8 percent from the...

By Pattrick Smellie July 11 (BusinessDesk) - First home buyers continue to grow as a proportion of the total home mortgage market, with KiwiSaver fund withdrawals now accounting for about half the deposits used to secure a first home, according to KPMG. Two years ago, first...

By Rebecca Howard July 10 (BusinessDesk) - National property values rose 1.7 percent in the year to June and would have been up 6.5 percent had Auckland been stripped out, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand's latest House Price Index shows. The index rose to 2,753 las...

By Gavin Evans July 8 (BusinessDesk) - Geothermal minerals specialist Geo40 is considering a listing to help fund the next stage of the firm’s growth. The company has operated a demonstration silica extraction facility at the Ohaaki field, in conjunction with Contact Energy...

By Paul McBeth July 5 (BusinessDesk) - Foreign buyers will end up in the red after agreeing to pay almost $3 million in penalties for purchasing rural land north of Auckland without Overseas Investment Office consent.  The High Court yesterday ordered Chinese businessmen Zh...

By Paul McBeth July 3 (BusinessDesk) - Quotable Value has a watching brief on whether new law requiring proper insulation on rental properties will drive up rents as expected, at a time when Auckland's slowing housing market is dragging down national prices.  Regulations re...

By Rebecca Howard July 2 (BusinessDesk) - Townhouses boosted New Zealand residential building consents to their highest level in 45 years. Seasonally adjusted residential permits rose to 3,173 in May, up 13 percent from April when they fell 7.9 percent, Stats NZ said. In...

By Pattrick Smellie June 28 (BusinessDesk) - Fletcher Building's credibility relies on delivering improvements in its Australian business before anything else, even though there are signs of a "major downturn" in the Australian residential construction sector and potential for...