Mortgage rates, income growth, and house sales activity: the three underlying influences on residential alterations and additions (A&A) activity – more commonly known as renovations.

Cost of living pressures are affecting all corners of society, and Budget 2025 included an expansion to the Rates Rebate Scheme for SuperGold cardholders. This article dives into the rates rebate boost, and looks at how many people might benefit in each part of the country.

The Government recently released its AI Strategy. Toi Mai CEO, Dr Claire Robinson, followed up by calling for an AI Skills Strategy. Here we look at what an AI Skills Strategy should look like.

After hovering at close to zero throughout the first half of last year, expectations for residential construction activity from ANZ’s Business Outlook strengthened from July 2024 – as did many other indicators in the survey of business sentiment.

Homelessness is a clear challenge for some people in New Zealand. Although homelessness numbers are small, on a relative basis, housing outcomes for nearly 112,000 people are still far too precarious to be ignored.

On 6 May 2025, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announced the Government was amending the Equal Pay Act, including discontinuing current pay equity claims and raising the bar for future claims to be successful. Here we look at the number of workers whose pay equity claims were discontinued and the types of occupations affected.

Late last month the Reserve Bank released its latest Monetary Policy Statement, which included forecast scenarios based on different ways the ongoing trade war could evolve and effect the New Zealand economy.

Net migration is one of the big uncertainties currently when trying to forecast future residential construction activity levels.

On 12 May, the Government announced that they would invest almost $100m over four years to improve student achievement in maths. Do school students need this extra maths teaching support, and will the changes make any difference?

There are some early, small, tentative signs of a turnaround according to Infometrics’ latest monitoring of regional economies, but tough conditions remained for many areas and sectors at the end of 2024.