Fewer property owners forced to sell

Mortgagee sales in Northland have dropped from 177 in 2010 to 99 in 2013 and 56 in 2014. Photo / File

Substantially fewer Northlanders are losing their properties and homes to mortgagee sales.

Statistics released by CoreLogic showed there were 56 mortgagee sales in Northland in 2014 - a drop from 99 in 2013 and far fewer than in previous years.

There has been a steady decline in mortgagee sales since 2010 when there were 177 forced sales.

A mortgagee sale occurs when mortgage repayments aren't made and the lending bank or institution exercises its right to sell the house or property.

Loan Market Whangarei mortgage broker Carie Townley believed the drop was due to more confidence in the market and better mortgage rates.

"We've all noticed a significant drop," she said. "I think it's that there's a lot more stability in the market and people seem to have more confidence. There's also practical reasons such as very good rates at the moment."

Loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions caused the market to flatten but it was unlikely to have had much of an effect on mortgagee sales, she said.

"We can't blame LVR because they only came in last year. They made it harder for people to get into houses but, at the same time, people have been able to use their KiwiSavers because they've matured and take advantage of Housing New Zealand's first home subsidy."

Nationally, there were 198 mortgagee sales in the last three months of 2014. That was down from 243 in the previous quarter meaning fewer Kiwi homeowners were being forced to sell their houses. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub said the drop was due to an economic upturn after the protracted global financial crisis.

"The general story on mortgagee sales is very positive," he said.

"The figures showed a huge departure from the pits of the recession, when at one point in 2009 mortgagee sales accounted for one in 25 of all homes sold."

Now, Mr Eaqub said, only 1 per cent of houses sold were mortgagee sales.

There was some regional variation. In Northland and the Bay of Plenty, there were more mortgagee sales in the last few months of the year.

"This is consistent with the broader economic picture," Mr Eaqub said. "The recovery from recession has been lopsided. Nearly 80 per cent of new jobs in the last seven years have been in Auckland and nearly 20 per cent in Canterbury, with little growth in other parts."