Property owners taking a hit leaving the housing market

Sellers making a loss are losing more, but the vast majority of sales don't incur a loss. Photo / File

The slowdown in the housing market is causing sellers to take bigger losses on house sales.

The quarterly Pain and Gain report from CoreLogic showed that while the number of people taking a loss is trending down, the amount they lose has increased. The report is a quarterly analysis of homes which were resold over the quarter.

CoreLogic found that the proportion of all properties resold at a loss in the latest quarter was 3.7 per cent.

The median loss in Tauranga was the most pronounced, with people who sold at a loss losing a median of $55,000, up from $25,000 in the previous quarter. Dunedin also showed a sharp increase in loss up to $19,000 from $3000 in the previous quarter.

Christchurch was the worst affected city centre with the 7.9 per cent of people who took a hit losing a median of $36,500. The 1.8 per cent of Auckland sellers who took a loss were out-of-pocket by a median of $26,000.

Nationwide, the median loss per loss-making sale is around $20,000. Investors were worse off than owner occupiers, losing $44,500 per sale.

Another trend revealed in the report was that the median hold period for loss-making properties had decreased from eight years in the previous quarter to just under seven.

The hold period in Auckland dropped to just one year in the June quarter, down from 2.3 years in the previous quarter.

"This means half of all Auckland properties selling at a loss were owned for less than a year," CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said.

Goodall said the report showed the result of the general market slowdown and uncertainty about the future.

"We know from consumer confidence surveys that house price expectations have weakened. This new data shows a higher number of people who bought in the past year are more cautious and choosing to sell earlier," he said.