House sale figures 'wrong'

Real estate figures which have formed the basis of reports of a Northland property market in free-fall are skewed and misleading, a real estate consultant says.
Whangarei real estate consultant Barry Joblin says Real Estate Institute of New Zealand house sale statistics showing a dramatic drop in house sales from mid-year are incorrect but the REINZ has come out of its corner fighting, saying "if there's any inaccuracy it's not significant".
Mr Joblin, licensee of The Professionals Whangarei, said the situation arose from less information on sales being sent to the institute.
A number of companies no longer belonged to the REINZ after last year's industry restructuring. They had stopped sending in monthly house sales figures. Even some REINZ members might not be sending in sales figures, because this was not compulsory, either.
But often this year's figures - when fewer companies were submitting data - were compared to last year's, providing a more negative picture than might really be the case.
Non-compulsory membership meant the institute no longer knew how high its industry membership was.
Mr Joblin said: "They say just 32 houses were sold in Whangarei in August.
"We had nine unconditional house sales that month so we know sales were at least 28 per cent higher."
Sales were well down on the same month last year - 69 - but not as far down as the institute was saying.
Surveyed in July, about 65 per cent of members of The Professionals nationwide said they belonged to the institute, he said. REINZ acting CEO Wendy Alexander said industry-wide it was "as high as 89 per cent."
"I am confident the statistical data is of sufficient depth and strength that it's reflecting the marketplace," she said.
She said most members were big players.
BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said: "There is a downward bias to house sales data reported by REINZ at the moment because an uncertain proportion of those who used to report now are not doing so, either because they don't have to or because free stuff they got in exchange for reporting is no longer available.
"We believe the downward bias is small but don't really know by how much."
The restructuring of the real estate industry, which became effective last year, set up the Real Estate Agents Authority which licenses industry members and provides an independent and transparent complaints process.
The REINZ became the advocacy group for the industry, with a voluntary membership which is not legally required to supply house sales figures.
The REINZ said names of Northland members was confidential.