Housing

Even replacing the carpet didn't remove the strong smell of dog urine from the property.

Renting in the Central Otago Lakes District region is now more expensive than Auckland, though renters elsewhere are seeing relief.

Puke Aute papakāinga south of Hastings has 10 new houses built on Māori ancestral land as well as vege gardens, lambs, chickens and pigs.

One in five home-buyers were first-timers - despite soaring property prices and thousands of people on waitlists for affordable housing schemes.

Property values continued to dip last year, but lower mortgage interest rates and signs of an economic recovery point to a possible change of direction.

It's been a tough 12 months on the housing front, so what might we see in the next year?

The first residents have moved in to a gated island community in Manukau Harbour.

The service encountered an 87-year-old woman living on the streets in its first week of operation.

The couple said the bank had misled and pressured them into refixing the loan for five years.

The dream of owning a home is now a reality for 18 Pasifika families in Porirua, one of the four main cities that make up the Greater Wellington Region.

Houses in holiday hotspots have increased in value significantly over the past decade, but they come with a warning.

Peter Tennent said he'd had enough of the unacceptable behaviour of some social housing tenants. Audio