Five homes sold in one weekend

A real estate agent has sold five houses in a single weekend, after some chaotic open homes amid a shortage of houses for sale in Marlborough.

Harcourts real estate agent Ben McLennan closed five sales last weekend in Blenheim, a big jump from his usual one or two sales per week, he said.

That included a property priced for first home buyers, two houses in new developments, a family-sized home priced over $500,000 and a new build priced over $600,000.

The lack of listings meant more prospective buyers were interested in each house, and making offers faster than usual, McLennan said.

Open homes were becoming ‘‘very rush-rush’’ with so many prospective buyers visiting, McLennan said.

‘‘By the time you take everybody’s details down, you don’t get much time to talk to everybody. But they know what they’re looking for.’’

Marlborough had 237 houses listed for sale on realestate.co.nz last month, the lowest number since their records began 13 years ago, which was 35.9 per cent fewer than the number of homes listed for sale in February last year.

Real estate agents in Blenheim said they were frequently getting multiple offers on a single property, and people selling their homes were able to accept higher offers as a result.

Last week Summit Marlborough sales manager Nadine Thomas said demand was outstripping supply, and more new builds were needed of all types.

But First National Marlborough branch manager Angela Bowers said the higher offers they were seeing as a result were great for homeowners.

Bayleys Marlborough general manager David Lee said his agents were also selling multiple properties in a single day, but kept having to remind buyers not to seize the first offer. The Bayleys team had a policy of keeping properties listed for three weeks, he said.

‘‘Buyers do try to take control of the situation and they do try to rush the process. But as an agent your client is your vendor, and more time on the market means multiple offers, and getting the best price.

‘‘We are getting record prices set every week in Marlborough.

‘‘So vendors need to trust the real estate process, and make sure they do market their property well. They may be surprised by the result they achieve, exposing the property to many buyers. It’s not uncommon to see $100,000 difference between the lowest and highest offer.’’

If you have a housing story for ‘The Squeeze’, email Jennifer Eder at jennifer.eder@stuff.co.nz

STUFF Agents are getting up to 30 people coming through an open home in Blenheim.