Category Archives: Homes & Property New Zealand

• Houses could one day sit on the site of the Petone Mitre 10.

Hutt City Council planners are looking at the future of a block of land that includes Petone Mitre 10, Fairfax’s printing press and Imperial Tobacco, tentatively called the North Park Village

City fathers have grappled with how to boost its population since the 1980s when major employers such as Ford and Gear Meat closed.

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• Truckies, greenies and Nimbys get the chance to have a say on a major road through Auckland’s industrial belt when a board of inquiry starts tomorrow.

The east-west link, a new four-lane road connecting State Highway 1 at Sylvia Park to State Highway 16 at Onehunga, is costed at between $1.25 billion and $1.85b.

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• Suburban shopping malls aren’t dead but it’s not hard to kill them off, retail experts say.

Fears of ghost malls has been raised again with news that two more tenants, McDonald’s and OPSM, are joining the string of tenants to leave Wellington’s Johnsonville Mall.

Other malls around the Wellington region are also experiencing fluctuating fortunes, ranging from being a little tired to severe decline, in the case of Wainuiomata mall.

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• With house prices finally plateauing and dropping in some areas, research company Canstar has outlined what would-be first home buyers should consider before putting a foot on the elusive property ladder.

The retail and business finance research company is urging first home buyers to make sure they are properly prepared before they try to enter the market.

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With house prices finally plateauing and dropping in some areas, research company Canstar has outlined what would-be first home buyers should be aware of. Photo / 123RF

• The future of the Johnsonville Shopping Centre is looking more uncertain than ever with the exit of two major retailers.

Optometrist chain OPSM this week vacated the increasingly empty mall in the northern Wellington suburb, and McDonald’s has confirmed it will  close in less than three months.

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• Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler kept the official cash rate at 1.75 per cent and will look through a recent pick-up in inflation which is seen as being a temporary spike in the tradables sector while complaining about the currency’s strength over the past month. The kiwi gained.

“The increase in headline inflation in the March quarter was mainly due to higher tradables inflation, particularly petrol and food prices,” Wheeler said in a statement. “These effects are temporary and may lead to some variability in headline inflation.”

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Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler. Photo / Mark Mitchell

• A dingy, half-painted caravan with masking tape holding the windows together is being advertised for rent on TradeMe as a “fully-furnished one-bedroom unit”.

It will cost the tenant $125 per week to live in the caravan, which sits in an overgrown property on Bollard Ave in New Windsor, Auckland.

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Renting this caravan will cost you $125 a week in Auckland. Photo/Trade Me

• A new commercial development on Wellington’s waterfront looks set to cause controversy before construction even begins.

Wellington City Council’s Site 9, alongside Customhouse Quay, has been earmarked by developer Willis Bond & Co for a new five-storey block – but it is being opposed by Waterfront Watch, and is expected to end up in the Environment Court.

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• Kiwi Property is advancing its $200 million-plus Sylvia Park expansion, revealing details in an NZX presentation this morning with at least one big new department store and 1500 extra car parks to cope with demand.

But which department stores is unspecified. Kiwi is only saying it will have “at least one” and that it will be upstairs as part of a vast 2-hectare floor space expansion.

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The Sylvia Park aerial view shows changes at the Auckland centre.