A more than 50% drop in the number of mortgagee sales in Otago compared with last year shows those "overextended" have been cleared out of the sector, Real Estate Institute of New Zealand regional director Liz Nidd said yesterday.
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Ms Nidd was responding to data released from Terralink International, which showed total Otago mortgagee sales for January to June this year stood at 33, compared to 70 for the corresponding period last year.
Nationally, though, during the first half of 2011, sales remained historically high, with owners of single properties - families rather than investors - making up a larger share of transactions.
The figures showed from January to June 2011, there were 1008 forced sales in New Zealand, or more than five every day.
Terralink managing director Mike Donald said while that was a decrease from the 1229 recorded for the corresponding period last year, the number remained four to five times higher than in pre-recession years. In 2007, there were just 230 mortgagee sales recorded from January to June.
Asked about the Otago figures, Ms Nidd said from looking at the advertisements for mortgagee sales "there are now very few".
"I think it's just most of the people who have got themselves in trouble, stretching themselves too far, have now hit the wall."
Those people had gone from the sector, and the situation was returning to normal.
Some had been underfinanced, and others had changes to their job situation, as had happened around the world during the recession, she said.
Mr Donald said nationally, numbers remained "very high".
"If you consider mortgagee sales to be one of the factors in gauging economic recovery, then we are certainly not out of the woods yet."
During the first half of 2011, 23% of mortgagee sales were for properties owned by individuals with just one property - likely their family home.
Last year those property owners made up just 19% of all mortgagee sales.
"When Terralink first noticed a big increase in mortgagee sales during the beginning of the recession, it was predominantly property developers, or individuals with multiple properties who were being affected the most," Mr Donald said.
"But as the recession deepened, more and more everyday Kiwis began losing their homes ... almost a quarter of all mortgagee sales involve single property owners.
"That is very significant."
