Given the volatility of the share market at the moment, punters are looking around for new ways of getting a quick return on their buck. Even in the share market an annual return of 24% on the amount invested would be right up there with the high rollers.

But that's exactly what the return bricks and mortar moguls got in the Auckland housing market over the past year.

The Reserve Bank's been losing sleep over the over heated market in our biggest city which is now among the world's most expensive places to own a home. In reality, to an extent the central banker's the author of the city's fortune, with their control on interest rates being relaxed and likely to be relaxed even further.

It takes Auckland punters nine times the average wage to pick up the front door key these days, whereas in the rest of the country it's around half that.

But here's the rub, more than forty percent of Auckland's houses are being sold to investors, and why not? They have an eye for opportunity and they're putting their money where your front door is.

Goodness only knows what Teflon John Key's multi million dollar mansion in Parnell's worth these days, but it's certainly a far cry from the state house he grew up in on the wrong side of the tracks down in Christchurch. Come to think of it, that one's probably on the market as well.

There's one thing for sure though, it won't do as well as the modest, Auckland state house which turned over four times in the space of three months, adding 84 grand to its value. The original buyer, a fellow with the name of Xiaoli Zhen, sold it within two days after settling the deal with a woman called Sue Wilson, making just under a fifty grand profit.

So where are the investors coming from? Teflon John reckons he knows. They're largely local, to be blunt, he said. Some might be from offshore, he conceded, but the bulk of them will be Kiwis. Yeah well they must be very well heeled Kiwis earning much more than nine times the average wage.

There's a lot of jawboning that goes on about the Auckland housing market but no matter how they try to talk the prices down, they continue to rise.

The Beehive and their banker are putting the brakes on in a few months time, with an investor capital gains tax if they buy and sell within two years, which would catch the two day sale of Mr Zhen. And investors will have to come up with a 30 percent deposit which is not all that far above last year's house price inflation in the city.

So the brakes will be faulty and it'll be booming business as usual!