Realtors in New Zealand are coming up with exuberant ideas in a desperate bid to sell houses as the real estate market continues to go south, partly thanks to the affordability crisis.
The sellers have been coming up with bizarre ideas to entice customers, so much so that an advertisement poster recently went viral after a realtor offered to throw in a Tesla car as a complementary for purchasing a newly built five-bedroom house and granny flat in Auckland.
According to TVNZ 1 news channel, the ad was headlined “brand new Tesla and brand new home”.
Barfoot & Thompson sales agent Kapil Rana came up with the idea, saying that vehicle was a “bonus”, rather than an add-on to the market value.
Tesla cars sell for about $72,400 in New Zealand. The property put up for sale is being offered for around $1.8 million.
Rana has said that he has received more than 50 emails since the advisement went up on Tuesday.
Despite this, not many have turned up to buy the house, which is located in the suburbs, along with 400 other empty homes on the market for months.
The drastic fall in demand for houses is being attributed to high mortgage rates.
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Data released by Real Estate Institute (REINZ) released this week shows that the median house price was down 10.9 per cent annually, to $825,000.
The overall volume of houses sold in October had also dropped dramatically: down 34.7 per cent compared with last year, from 7,486 to 4,892.
New Zealand’s central bank has been trying to control inflation by raising interest rates, in turn, it has affected the mortgage rates as well, triggering a fall in demand and as a result, a fall in the prices of houses.
REINZ has said that the properties are staying unsold for longer, with the national median now 44 days in October compared to only 10 days last year.
(With inputs from agencies)
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