Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's the newest episode of our OneRoof-partnered series, on how to avoid the specific pitfalls that come with each property type. Hosted by Frances Cook.

When people are trying to get onto the property ladder, they're often told to think outside the box.

Sure, you might have grown up in a standard three-bedroom house surrounded by garden, but that's unlikely to be what you can afford when you're trying to get into that elusive first home.

Or frankly maybe you just don't want that, even if you have the budget to consider it.

Maybe the allure of inner-city living has you thinking about an apartment. Or keeping your weekends free for fun rather than mowing lawns has you thinking about a townhouse.

There are all sorts of different property types out there, each with their own price point, and lifestyle.

But before you decide which one you want, you need to know some serious pros and cons for each.

For the latest Cooking the Books episode I talked to Anne Gibson, Herald property editor, and David Whitburn, a property investor and developer.

We discussed the pros and cons of houses, townhouses, terraced houses and apartments.

If you have a question about this podcast, or question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookJournalist/ Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/ and Twitter here https://twitter.com/FrancesCook