At the end of a challenging year, many homeowners will be looking forward to kicking back and enjoying this Christmas and the summer holidays. One of the great ways to celebrate the festive season is to hang lights in your front yard, brightening the summer evenings not just for yourself but neighbours and passers-by, too.…
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With 2023 fast approaching, it’s that time of year when we consider our New Year’s resolutions, or whether we should bother at all having failed countless times before! If you’re one of the many who pledged, but never bothered to: lose weight, go jogging in your lunch hour or stop smoking, then we’ve got a…
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It’s that time again when family and friends ask about New Year’s resolutions. It’s an old chestnut of a conversation, even though most of us are hopeless at keeping the well-meaning promises we make for ourselves. So, how about this year trying something new and focusing on managing your mortgage? With interest rates rising faster…
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Selling your home takes time to plan, it’s not just about organising your preferred agent and solicitor, and perhaps refinancing for your next property. To maximise the value of your home (and who doesn’t want to do that?) you also need to think carefully about potential renovations and aesthetic improvements. We’ve outlined five simple finishing…
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One of the best strategies as a seller is to put yourself into a buyer’s shoes and ask what would make you buy your property in the current market. You might ponder how your property currently stacks up against similar homes for sale in the local area and whether the recent uptick in interest rates…
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Now may prove a good time for renters thinking about buying their first home – particularly for those approaching the end of their lease. The current market means contributing to your own home equity, rather than paying rising rents and helping pay off someone else’s mortgage, can be a good strategy. While first-home buyers often…
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Do you have big renovation plans for your new home, or do you want to make improvements before you sell? Now is a good time to make sure you protect yourself as building companies hit turbulent financial waters while they absorb increasing material costs. Leading industry researcher CoreLogic says construction costs jumped 9% in the…
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One of the most valuable and ambitious renovations before putting your home on the market is to rip out and replace your bathroom. A brand new bathroom can add tens of thousands of dollars to the value of your home and help it sell quickly. A bathroom is arguably the most complicated area of the…
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Did you know that switching from gas cooking to electricity can help save the environment? Research now shows that every time you ignite a gas ring, your stove will push out unburned methane that’s 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide (C02). And, according to a Forbes magazine report, the number of gas stoves being…
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New Zealand’s financial system is well placed to handle the challenging economic environment, according to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. In its most recent Financial Stability Report, released earlier this month, the Reserve Bank noted that conditions were becoming more challenging, with interest rates rising and the economy likely to slow. “Despite these challenges,…
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