The rise in mortgagee sales is becoming noticeable, with a 35 per cent increase from the previous year.
Despite this, such sales constitute a small fraction of the total market. As of now, TradeMe lists 65 residential properties under mortgagee sales, less than one per cent of their total 42,000 listings. Gavin Lloyd, TradeMe’s property sales director, told state media that the overall market slowdown and extended selling periods might be contributing to the uptick. Rising living costs and interest rates are pressing homeowners, yet mortgagee sales are often a last resort, indicating that many are attempting to sell proactively before facing lender action.
In Wellington, Bayleys’ Grant Henderson told state media he had seen a significant increase in mortgagee sale appraisals, shifting from three a year to three per month. This rise encompasses a broad range of sellers, from developers to individual homeowners and investors. Henderson said banks consider mortgagee sales a final measure, often after extended periods of financial difficulty and ample warnings. CoreLogic’s chief property economist, Kelvin Davidson, contextualizes the current increase as modest compared to the peak during the 2009 financial crisis, highlighting a contrast with the 24 sales in the first quarter of this year against the 800 monthly sales in 2009.
This article was originally published at Daily Telegraph New Zealand.
