A Realestate.co.nz survey found that 24% of respondents bought a property without initially intending to purchase, with 8% buying spontaneously in the past year.

Agent Rawdon Christie told Heather du Plessis-Allan it's hard to believe people are really buying on a whim.

He says there's a mountain of paper work and regulations to get through before signing on the dotted line.

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Mastercard and a small handful of other companies have dominated the way money moves between banks, shops and consumers, but that could soon change.

Stablecoins have been touted as a possible disrupter - but what does that mean for people?

Fisher Funds expert Sam Dickie explains further.

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Prices continue to drop in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, with a 4.1 percent decrease across the board.

It is the largest decline this calendar year, following a 1 percent dip from the previous auction, and is the fourth consecutive event where the average price has decreased.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further.

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Simeon Brown has told various Government-owned companies they must explain why they are failing to deliver their cost of equity and how they will improve their returns.

The Minister for State Owned Enterprises told several of the SOEs - including NZ Post and Landcorp - that they've been underperforming over the last few years.

Landcorp was also singled out because its CEO's pay climbed from $760,000 in 2021/22 to $927,000 in 2023/24, but company’s profit nearly halved to $36.3 million dollars during that time.

Landcorp's Chief Operating Officer Will Burrett says the company's had to go back to basics - and they're not the only agricultural entity that's had to scale back.

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The Building and Construction Minister is backing scaling back some insulation standards.

The Government's called the changes 'common sense' - with building costs rising more than 40 percent since 2019.

It's expected building code insulation requirements will be relaxed by the year's end.

Chris Penk says they add huge costs.

"Depending on where you are in the country or depending on what the conditions are or which way your house faces, you don't need all of that, you just need some of that. So as long as we can get to the same good overall result without being so prescriptive, then there's money to be saved and houses to be built."

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