KEY POINTS:
Forget the holiday weekend sales at The Warehouse and other discount stores - this month's big red half-price tags are on property.
The language is like that of the Mad Butcher TV ads, with screaming capital letters and exclamation marks, as desperate vendors slash prices to the bone.
Says one: "Motivated Vendor reduced Price NOW Approx 50 per cent of GV! OUTSTANDING BARGAIN! Looking for that unique and outstanding eco-lifestyle block? DO NOT MISS THIS."
But there is nothing trashy about the property: the advertisement is for a beautiful 4ha lifestyle block valued at on Waiheke Island's Te Matuku Point, overlooking a northern dotterel breeding ground, with access by both boat and road.
Daniel Feenspra is selling the Waiheke property on behalf of an overseas friend, who has owned it for 25 years. Feenspra said the low asking price of $600,000 was just "the law of the jungle" for vendors who decide to sell now.
"The owner simply wants the land out of his hands and the price just has to meet the current market," he said. "He's quite secure but I think, for a lot of people, it's pretty tragic to have to cut their net worth in half."
The vendors of a five-bedroom house in Khandallah, overlooking Wellington Harbour, are asking $150,000 below the $1 million valuation, in a mortgagee sale. Houses in the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato have also taken a big cut, and a four-bedroom family home in Mt Eden, Auckland, is on sale for nearly $300,000 less than the $830,000 valuation - with the Epsom Girls' Grammar zone thrown in for free.
Mark Dow of QV Valuations said the decline in property values since mid-2008 meant now was a very affordable time to buy - but correspondingly tough for sellers.
"Property values held reasonably flat through the first three months of the year, but the decline kicked in through the autumn and winter months, during which time values dropped 6 per cent," he said.
"With the significant drops in interest rates over the past three months, there has been an increase in market activity and values appear to be flattening again."
