The number of first home buyers getting into a home of their own appears to be stabilising after an extended period of decline. The latest mortgage lending figures from the Reserve Bank show 1883 mortgages were approved for first home buyers in April, up 6.6% compared to April last year. That suggests they are gaining an increasing share of the housing market, with sales to other types of buyers such as investors and owner-occupiers, dropping away more strongly. The first graph below shows the trend in monthly mortgage approvals to first home buyers expressed as a percentage of total housing sales. The second graph below shows the relationship between the REINZ's monthly median selling price and the estimated average price paid by first home buyers.

Video / NZ HeraldBy RNZQueenstown’s winter workforce is already arriving, but the big question is where will they live? Queenstown Housing Initiative co-founder Hannah Sullivan was blunt in her assessment of where the winter workforce would be staying this year. Housing Minister Megan Woods recently visited the area and understood the extent of the crisis, but central government was not doing enough to combat it, Fifield said. “I think the businesses that are hiring these people should be letting them know there’s a crisis,” Waterfield said. The subsequent reality check meant Queenstown’s welcoming reputation to workers was taking a hit.

nzherald.co.nz published this video item, entitled “Markets with Madison: Restaurant Brands chairman on obesity, inflation | nzherald.co.nz” – below is their description. The chairman of KFC & Carl’s Jr. parent, Restaurant Brands, says he worries about obesity but the company’s future is ‘very bright’. Full story: https://bit.ly/3C3Ft6d Subscribe and be notified of breaking news: https://goo.gl/LP45jX Check out our playlists: https://goo.gl/Swd249 Like NZ Herald on Facebook: https://goo.gl/tUC4oq Follow NZ Herald on Instagram: https://goo.gl/oLicXe Follow NZ Herald on Twitter: https://goo.gl/Wi6mbv nzherald.co.nz YouTube ChannelGot a comment? Leave your thoughts in the comments section, below. Please note comments are moderated before publication.

Celebrating excellence in the media industry, the 2023 Voyager Media Awards event took place on Saturday, May 27, unveiling winners across 65 awards. Guiding the evening’s festivities, which also marked the Media Award’s 50th anniversary in Aotearoa, were Co-Hosts Petra Bagust and Mike Puru. Stuff Chief Content Officer Joanna Norris said the awards demonstrate the strength of Stuff across the board with major awards for Stuff’s national, metropolitan and regional news products. And it’s a huge accolade to see our daily newspaper celebrated as Voyager Newspaper of the Year, recognising the connection it generates with its readers. I’d like to congratulate TVNZ’s winners and finalists and thank them for the powerful reporting they have delivered to New Zealanders across the year.”Brook Cameron, GM of the NPA which manages the Voyager Media Awards says:“The News Publishers’ Association is honoured to bring the Voyager Media Awards season together each year.

It’s not revelatory to say that cancer treatment is hard, but you don’t realise quite how brutal it is until you go through it. My breast cancer treatment involved 16 cycles of chemotherapy, followed by a 10-hour operation and a week in hospital for mastectomy with reconstruction and lymph node clearance. We all know heavy-drinking chain-smokers who live for a long time, and sadly many of us have known healthy young people with cancer. Here’s where to start:Take regular exercise – it doesn’t have to be for longStrengthening your body is the most powerful anti-cancer thing you can do. If these benefits were the result of a new drug, it would make headlines as an enormous breakthrough in cancer treatment.

In This Story: RussiaRussia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. Russia spans more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, stretching eleven time zones, and bordering 16 sovereign nations. The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 and since 1993 Russia been governed as a federal semi-presidential republic. Russia is a major great power, with the world’s second-most powerful military, and the fourth-highest military expenditure. As a recognised nuclear-weapon state, the country possesses the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Video / NZ HeraldThe owner of a South Dunedin bottle store at the centre of a fatal car crash on Saturday morning says he feels “callous” for not feeling sad about the death of a young person. A man in his 20s died after allegedly helping to break into the Bottle-O, next to Bathgate Park, in Hillside Rd. The Serious Crash Unit and the IPCA are investigating a fatal crash following a police pursuit in Melbourne St, South Dunedin, on Saturday morning. The scene of the crash cordoned off in Melbourne St on Saturday. Melbourne St remained closed to traffic until about 3.30pm yesterday.

What an appalling journalistic decision to award Stuff’s Middle Class Docudrama ‘Fire and Fury‘ with best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards this year. Fire and Fury told the middle class narrative that their middle class readers wanted (and pay for). Likewise this awful Fire and Fury docudrama! We escalated this because we got scared, journalists like the ones that made Stuff’s docudrama were personally frightened. If middle class virtue signalling is journalism now, we are in real trouble.

Photo: Getty ImagesA study estimates there will be more than 800 million cases of low back pain in 2050, a 36% increase from 2020. With an ageing population, researchers say we must "put the brakes" on low back pain cases before the burden becomes too great for our healthcare system.

Prince William (left) and Prince Harry are reported to have met their mother's former butler, Paul Burrell, shortly before Harry's wedding to better understand aspects of her life. Photo / File, APPrince William (left) and Prince Harry are reported to have met their mother's former butler, Paul Burrell, shortly before Harry's wedding to better understand aspects of her life. Photo / File, APPrince William and Prince Harry had a secret meeting with a former royal butler before Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle. New reports have revealed the brothers secretly met Princess Diana’s butler Paul Burrell before Harry’s wedding so they could better understand their mother. Paul Burrell was perhaps one of Diana's most well-known members of staff.

NZ On Air and PIJF-funded projects winning across national and global stageNZ On Air is thrilled to congratulate the Te Rito Journalism Project for its win for Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation at the 2023 INMA Global Media Awards in New York. The Te Rito Journalism Project is a ground-breaking journalism cadetship programme funded by NZ On Air’s Public Interest Journalism Fund (PIJF) – a collaboration between NZME, Whakaata Māori, Newshub and Pacific Media Network. Te Rito was designed as an initiative to address the shortage of Māori, Pasifika and diverse journalists in the newsrooms of Aotearoa. “This award is such a wonderful testament to the success of Te Rito,” says Raewyn Rasch (Ngāi Tahu), NZ On Air Head of Journalism. NZ On Air is extremely proud to congratulate the following winners funded across a wide range of projects that reflected and connected with audiences across the motu.

We need free public transport. We need free dental. Don’t vote early in the 2023 election. But what I will beg of you, is to not vote early in 2023. Keep demanding concessions and promises for your vote right up until midnight before election day AND THEN cast your vote!

I have zero interest in damning hungry people stealing food. Right now we have the highest food inflation in 30 years, people are desperate and shameless inn their desperation. The Supermarket duopoly price gouge the bejesus out of us, and I’m sure as fuck not going to fight for the profit margins of the NZ Supermarket duopoly! Now this equation changes immediately if these two scamps had in fact stolen something from an individual who was in the supermarket. Hungry people stealing food from greedy Supermarkets?

Photo / Maryana GarciaRotorua teen Nikau Grace says her new single, released as part of Waiata Anthems, was written as a way to resolve her identity challenge. Tōkū Tuakiri is one of the songs which is part of the Waiata Anthems New Zealand Music Month drop. Grace, who has Te Arawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Te Whānau Ā Apanui connections, says the waiata was written during an emotional time. “Thank you so much to all of you who have already streamed and shared my waiata, I’m so grateful. I thought I would finally post these fire pics that the @lukeysp00ky and the Waiata Anthems team took, I don’t often like photos of myself, but love how me some of these pics are haha.

The Last of Us tells the story of a fungal zombie apocalypse... triggered by climate change. So could this kind ofThis video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy . It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any)....