Property market still feeling recession's bite

Mortgagee sale figures for January are up over 30 per cent. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The easing of mortgagee sales is still some way off with the January figures up 31 per cent on the same month last year, says land information company Terralink.

There were 196 registered mortgagee sales in January compared with the 150 in January 2009.

Terralink managing director Mike Donald said there were fewer sales in January than the previous month but this probably did not signal the start of a downward trend.

"We do often see a drop in mortgagee sales in January compared to other months. This may be because January is generally a quiet business month in New Zealand as most of us are on holiday.

"When you compare year-on-year figures and see that the number of forced sales was still 31 per cent higher than a year ago it shows there's no sign of a let up just yet."

Mr Donald said he didn't expect to see a return to pre-recession figures until mid next year, and only a number of consecutive months of dropping figures would show the pressure was abating.

- NZPA