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Photo: Paul Blomfield "Doing it hard." "Struggling." "An incredibly tough year." These were the words used to describe many people's experiences in 2024, but particularly that of those in the construction industry. Building and related trades have certainly been in the doldrums: work has dropped off, trades shops are nearly empty, builders are working on their own projects just to keep their employees busy, insolvencies are up and staff are being laid off. Many financial commentators say the key economic change that's needed to breathe life back into the sector is for interest rates to come down. On 14 August they did. The Official Cash Rate dropped a quarter of a percent, to 5.25. Three weeks later the Auckland Home Show kicked off its four-day extravaganza of house plans, spa pools, ...

Woolworth staff at 190 stores strike for two hours Tuesday. Photo: Supplied Woolworths supermarket staff are taking their first nationwide strike today because the company is resisting efforts to pay a living wage, their union says. Members from more than 190 stores will walk off the job from 12pm until 2pm Tuesday. First Union spokesperson Rudd Hughes said workers were also concerned about the rising levels of abuse directed at staff in stores. Woolworths has been approached for an updated comment on Tuesday. In August, Woolworths managing director Spencer Sonn told RNZ the supermarket already paid near the top of the market and offered a range of benefits to staff. "Our offer includes a 6.6 percent increase for our store team on average over two years, and we have a genuine focus on h...

Wairoa's typical first-home repayment is only 79 percent of the cost of a median rental. File photo. Photo: Pool / NZME Buying a house is about twice as expensive as renting in New Zealand as a whole, but there are still places where it is cheaper to own your home than rent it, new data shows. Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan has run the numbers on how the average rent around the country compares to the cost of buying a first home, based on a median-priced house with a 20 percent deposit over a 30-year term, and a one-year fixed home loan rate. That data shows that in areas such as Wairoa, Kawerau, Ruapehu, Buller and Tararua, it is cheaper to service a mortgage than to pay typical rent. Wairoa's typical first-home repayment is only 79 percent of the cost of a median rental, ...

The value of Turner's investment in My Auto Shop was not disclosed. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Car dealer Turners has filled a gap in its after-sales product line-up with a deal to buy half of digital vehicle repair platform My Auto Shop. The value of the investment was not disclosed, but involved TradeMe and the My Auto Shop founders selling down part of their stakes, as well as a capital injection by Turners. "Vehicle servicing and repairs is a $3-billion business in NZ and has been a gap in the Turners offering," Turners chief executive Todd Hunter said. "The investment was a great opportunity for Turners to broaden its relationship with customers." My Auto Shop was a vehicle repair platform with more than 300 Motor Trade Association-approved repairers as well as a mobile repair offe...

The half-finished apartment building in Auckland's Epsom has been left derelict for the past five years. Photo: RNZ / Melanie Earley A year after a troubled, half-finished Auckland apartment block found a new owner, neighbouring businesses are still waiting for the building to be finished - or knocked down. The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted five years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent. The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023. Since then, community members and business owners have said there has been an air of mystery around what will happen to the building, which at one point was filled with ra...