KEY POINTS:
House buyers are waiting for prices to drop, tenants are crying out against big rent hikes and sellers still have unrealistically high expectations.
These are some of the findings to emerge from the latest BNZ monthly confidence survey from chief economist Tony Alexander.
"Buyers have been quoting their mentors saying 'wait till prices drop further'," one real estate agency said.
A North Shore property management firm said a 7-10 per cent rise in rents had tenants complaining.
"But after they look around, see they can't get better, they re-sign the agreement," the firm said, predicting that tenants would not move until next spring at the earliest.
"It will be a long hard winter for the residential market with anyone needing to sell taking a severe hair-cut to move on," the agency predicted.
Another residential agency expected "less deals and a larger gap between vendors and purchasers."
South Auckland house sales were down by 50 per cent and prices had dropped by around 10 per cent. North Shore vendors were taking "substantially less" for their places, another agency said.
In Queenstown, bargain-hunters were scouting the area where family house prices had dropped 15 per cent.
In the Pakuranga/Howick area, listings have doubled but sales had dropped 40 per cent.
An agency in Auckland's exclusive eastern suburbs reported sales volumes down 40 per cent on last year and activity over the $1 million mark pretty quiet. Auctioning a house was the best way to sell.
