Property owners tempting buyers

Press, 19 June 1976, Page 4

Property owners tempting buyers

Many property owners sell- [ ing recently have been leav-1 ing a large proportion of the ; purchase price >n their pro-i perties as an incentive to buy-1 ers. The practice was described ■ by the managing director of! one Christchurch real estate I agencj' as a way in which I sellers could capitalise on the' present shortage of mortgage finance — a shortage which has slowed the building industry considerably in the last 18 months. Some owners have been ■ leaving more than half the purchase price in properties, and have even offered the purchaser a smaller second mortgage to bridge the gap i between an already-arranged first mortgage anj the pur- ■ chase price. It is expected that this ad-

[vantage for home buyers will [last as long as there are restrictions on mortgage money [available. | There were some signs that the money market was ■ easing slightly, the real estate agent said. [ Ownership fiats had been especially hit by the downturn, mainly because of the large number built during the ■ last two years when finance was good; the market had been saturated. in the building industry the demand for new homes has improved considerably in the last month, the Council of the Building Industry of Canterbury reports in its monthly digest for May. The demand for commercial building on the other hand continues to decline. The limited amount of work

put out to open tender is now being priced in a highly competitive market, the report says. The natural losses, because of high turnover in the unskilled labouring sector, are not being made good as firms continued to retrench. For subcontractors the situation is much the same as for builders in housing and commercial business. The council reports that for architects, engineers, and quantity surveyors there is still a reduction in the demand on Government and local body projects. Otherwise there is a reasonable level of activity for the next four to six-month period. Some staff have been dismissed but generally they have been reabsorbed in other firms.