Mortgagee sales at all-time high

There were 321 mortgagee sales recorded in July, 10 times greater than the pre-recession monthly total for July 2007, at 33, according to the latest mortgagee sales data from Terralink.

Last year's July figure stood at 109 mortgagee sales.

Mortgagee sales now account for 5% of all property sales, up from just 0.003% in July 2007.

It is the first time since records began 15 years ago, that sales have exceeded 300 for a single month.

Terralink managing director, Mike Donald, says this is a clear indication that the economic downturn is still having a big impact on property owners. The total mortgagee sales to date for this year, at 1,809, have already overtaken the 1,304 sales for the entire year in 2008.

"Whilst recent reports show the New Zealand economy is in recovery, the rising number of mortgagee sales show individual New Zealanders are still being hit by the effects of the recession. Months of financial stress and the affects of job losses unfortunately mean some people cannot meet their mortgage payments and one in 20 of all property sales are now mortgagee sales.

"These latest figures show that even though export volumes and much of industry is on the up, many New Zealanders will still be feeling the recession for some time yet."

Terralink derives its mortgagee sales data from legal registrations of actual mortgagee sales.