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Photo: RNZ The reduction in the official cash rate is flowing through to the property market with improved buyer sentiment. A new property report from realestate.co.nz shows buyer enquiries increased by 8.5 percent in August in the fortnight following last month's OCR cut to 5.25 percent. The national average asking price dipped to $844,595 in August, the lowest in three-and-a-half years, with a further a 0.5 percent decrease from July and a 3.4 percent decrease from August 2023. Stock levels remain high increasing across the country by 30 percent year-on-year in August. August also marked a return to seasonal listing trends, according to realestate.co.nz chief executive Sarah Wood. "The rise in new listings suggests that vendors view this as a favourable time to sell, likely in response...

Summerset by the Park Rest Home in Flatbush. Photo: Google A report on the state of retirement villages highlights regional inequities and a critical shortage in the number of aged care units, despite a recent ramp-up in development. Property management firm JLL's latest Retirement Villages Market Review to the year ended December 2023, indicates there needed to be a significant increase in the rate of development to meet future demand. "New Zealand's retirement village sector has shown remarkable growth over the past decade, reflecting the increasing demand from our ageing population," JLL head of research Gavin Read said. "However, the findings of our review underscore the importance of strategic planning and development to ensure that future demand can be met." Development falls behi...

Seascape was meant to be New Zealand's highest residential building. But construction has stopped, thanks to a feud between the builder and developer.  Builders working on Auckland's Seascape tower were told to down tools in late August. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly It is being marketed as the "very best lifestyle imaginable" by Sotheby's real estate, an architectural masterpiece due for completion by "Q2 2024". But that date has come and gone and the Seascape tower in downtown Auckland sits unfinished after work was shut down last month over a dispute between the developer and the builder. The empty building site on Customs Street East is closed off and guarded by security workers, with no word on when work will restart. There is no mention of that on either Sotheby's or on Seas...

Wairoa District Mayor Craig Little. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone High power prices are hurting not just manufacturers, but councils too. Wairoa District Council said its energy costs had gone up 40 percent in the past three months. Mayor Craig Little told RNZ the town relied on electrical pumps to get water to residents, and the price increases had been scary. "I think it's hit everyone by surprise right across the country as with us. You try and predict it and you can't get that one right - we've got pumps with massive electrical motors and it's going to be huge for us," he said. Ministers met with several manufacturing companies this week, after Winstone Pulp International proposed closing down because of the high wholesale energy prices. That closure would result in the loss of 230 ...