FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More than one year needed to clear burgeoning number of unsold houses at current sales levels

AUCKLAND, 1 April 2010 – The high number of new property listings in March, coupled with static sales volumes, is adding to the glut of unsold houses. At current sales rates, it would now take more than one year to clear the available stock.

The data was released today in the NZ Property Report, a monthly survey of market activity compiled by Realestate.co.nz, the country’s leading property listing site.

According to Realestate.co.nz CEO, Alistair Helm, “14,408 new listings were added to the market in March. While this is down slightly from February, sales remain static and consequently the number of unsold houses has now grown to 55,623 nationwide. As a result, the inventory level of unsold houses, as measured by the number of weeks of sales necessary to clear properties on the market, has extended beyond the one year mark to 53 weeks. In December, the inventory level was 34.3 weeks, so that’s a 54% increase in three months. Indisputably the property market is even more favourable to buyers.

“However sellers appear to be in denial, as the asking price for new property listings in March rose slightly and is now only 1% below the peak of the market back in October 2007.
Vendors need to be asking themselves if their price expectations are realistic given the amount of unsold houses currently on the market. To secure a sale in this environment, sellers need to be flexible on the prices they are asking.”

In addition, the report highlighted an urban-provincial divide with the stock of unsold houses in provincial New Zealand rising to 70.1 weeks of inventory, while the three major cities recorded inventory of 39.8 weeks.

The full NZ Property Report, as well as further information and analysis of the report’s findings, can be found on the Unconditional blog at www.unconditional.co.nz.

About Realestate.co.nz
Realestate.co.nz is the official website of the New Zealand real estate industry, and provides the most comprehensive selection of listings across all categories of real estate. Realestate.co.nz lists over 100,000 properties at any one time, representing over 90% of all listings currently marketed by real estate professionals.

ENDS