The latest BNZ-REINZ residential market survey reports the 253 licensed real estate agents surveyed noted a fall in numbers of potential vendors asking for valuations.
In the latest survey there was an improvement, but only to a net 0%, BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said yesterday.
''Our BNZ business survey contained more than two pages of responses from people in the residential real estate sector telling us that listings are scarce and getting scarcer.
"Perhaps the result which stands out most in this survey is the record low net 18% of agents reporting they are seeing more first-home buyers in the market.''
The rules for high loan to value (LVR) lending might have already been tightened by banks before the official policy implementation by the Reserve Bank, Mr Alexander said.
At the weekend, Housing Minister Nick Smith announced a package to support first-home buyers by assisting them with a deposit and providing a guarantee for their mortgages.
The house price caps and income limits had been aligned to increase eligibility for the KiwiSaver first-home deposit subsidy and welcome home loans.
Those were expected to double the number of first-home buyers receiving the subsidy from 4700 to 10,000 a year and treble the number of welcome home loans from 845 to 2500 a year, he said.
The house price caps for welcome home loans were $350,000 in high-price markets like Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and $280,000 for other regions.
For KiwiSaver first-home loans deposit subsidy, they were $400,000 in Auckland, Wellington City, Selwyn and Queenstown Lakes and $300,000 for other regions.
The new price caps were being aligned for both welcome home loans and the KiwiSaver first-home buyer subsidy to $485,000 for Auckland, $425,000 for Wellington City and Queenstown Lakes, $400,000 for Christchurch and Selwyn, $350,000 for Porirua City, Hutt City, Upper Hutt, Kapiti Coast, Tasman-Nelson, Western Bay of Plenty, Hamilton, Tauranga, Waimakariri, Thames Coromandel and $300,000 for other regions.
Dr Smith said the Government was also aligning the income limits of the two schemes. The new income limits for both schemes would be $80,000 for a single person and $120,000 for two or more. Most deposit subsidies were for couples and the net effect of the changes was expected to increase eligibility by 11%.
The minimum deposit thresholds of the two schemes would also be aligned to 10%. The changes take effect on October 1.
Mr Alexander said for the third month in a row, more agents had reported they were noticing more people going through open homes.
The number of first-home buyers had been falling since March. The latest result appeared to run counter to the argument some had put forward that first-home buyers had flooded the market in the past few weeks, in order to secure a loan before the new Reserve Bank rules came into force.
Given some evidence banks had already tightened their high loan to value lending, the result might reflect first-home buyers starting to give up on their home ownership dreams for now, he said.
