House hunters out to net a bargain

The words "urgent sale" are setting a new trend on Trade Me as desperate house sellers link up with thousands of would-be buyers looking for a bargain.

In January, Trade Me had its highest amount of traffic on properties - 120,000 inquiries recorded for 93,000 listings - many of them listed under headings such as "urgent sale", "motivated seller" and "price reduced".

This week the Herald on Sunday counted 562 property listings under "urgent sale", including 367 properties in Auckland, 47 in the Waikato, 17 in Wellington and 24 in Canterbury.

Trade Me head of property Brendon Skipper said website staff had noted a huge increase in people listing properties under those headings in an effort to attract buyers.

And Skipper said house-hunters were also searching on these words in record numbers. Other top search words included "mortgagee", "investment" and "auction".

To read the full NZ Herald article click here

Posted: 5 Apr 2009

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