1 Sep 2010

Unsold houses galore, but prices hold up

12:46 pm on 1 September 2010

A large inventory of unsold houses continues to plague the housing market, as sellers' asking prices hold steady, according to the latest report from the property website realestate.co.nz.

New listings fell 11% in August, but at the current sales rate it would still take 46 weeks to clear the backlog of houses on the market.

Sellers' price expectations steadied in August, moving less than 1% to an average price of just over $403,000 - 6% below the average price at the peak of the market in October 2007.

The chief executive of real estate.co.nz, Alistair Helm, says that, unusually, the large inventory of houses on the market has failed to depress sellers' price expectations.