12 articles
Budget 2026 allocates $400 million over four years to an Incentives for Growth Fund that pays councils directly for each new home consented, with payments starting in April 2027.
Stride Property Group lowered its bank loan-to-value ratio to 34 percent in the year to 31 March 2026 while holding its dividend at 8.0 cents per share. The moves illustrate how Reserve Bank of New Zealand interest rate cuts have improved cash flow for commercial property borrowers.
Wellington City Council has approved an average 5.8% rates increase for the 2026/27 year, the lowest since 2020 and below Auckland's 7.9% rise.
Auckland councillors voted 14 to 7 on 26 May 2026 to approve Mayor Wayne Brown's 2026/27 annual budget, delivering an average 7.9 percent increase in residential rates.
Around 43 percent of New Zealand residential mortgage debt will reprice in the next six months, driving many households toward higher costs even while the Reserve Bank holds the Official Cash Rate at 2.25 percent.
The High Court has ordered Australian crypto investor Daniel Klaus to pay $350,000 in penalties for breaching the Overseas Investment Act in a $4.5 million Hawke's Bay farmland purchase.
Auckland Council is finalising a 7.9 percent rates increase for the average residential property in the 2026/27 Annual Plan. The rise adds roughly $320 a year to bills and stems directly from $235 million in annual operating costs for the City Rail Link.
The Government will increase the minimum rent contribution for social housing tenants from 25 per cent to 30 per cent of income from April 2027, lifting weekly costs for around 84,000 households by an average of $31 while generating $387.5 million in operating savings over the forecast period.
The net share of Auckland households expecting house prices to rise over the next year has more than halved to 14 per cent in the three months to April 2026, the largest regional drop recorded in the latest ASB Housing Confidence survey.
Auckland’s City Rail Link will carry its first paying passengers in the third or fourth week of July 2026 after safety testing ends in early June.
Angela Fang's 2026 Rod Oram Memorial Essay Prize win spotlights how tax settings and planning rules have distorted New Zealand housing into an investment vehicle rather than stable shelter. Policy must now prioritise supply through restored interest deductibility and flexible rules while curbing immigration-driven demand pressures.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has positioned New Zealand's absence of a comprehensive capital gains tax as a competitive advantage, directly targeting Australian investors angered by Canberra's May 2026 budget reforms that will impose a 30% minimum tax rate on realised gains from 1 July 2027.
