Fewer listings fail to clear property glut

Fewer people are selling their homes as uncertainty continues to cloud the New Zealand property sector.

Realestate.co.nz's NZ Property report shows the number of new listings fell for the fifth straight month last month, fuelling talk of a looming property shortage in our biggest city.

Realestate.co.nz's Alistair Helm said just 9804 properties came onto the market last month, the first time in more than a year that the volume of new listings has fallen below 10,000.

Ordinarily the decline would signal a tightening of the market, if it were not for the glut of unsold homes in the provinces and sluggish sales, Helm said.

"In theory that should clear the inventory, but because the sales volumes over the last three or four months have been quiet we haven't been able budge that stock of unsold property."

"Psychologically people are just wary about taking on debt," he said.

REINZ figures from July showed the number of sales dropped to their lowest July on record, down 27 per cent on year ago figures, reinforcing the view that it was a buyers' market.

To read the full NZ Herald article, click here

Posted: 2 Sep 2010

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