Summarised by Centrist
House sales across New Zealand are on the verge of collapse due to delays in obtaining finance, according to real estate agents and mortgage brokers.
Buyers are increasingly having to request extensions from sellers to secure finance and complete due diligence, with the standard 10 working days proving insufficient.
Alex Dunn, a Harcourts agent in Auckland noted that while some vendors are willing to wait, others refuse, especially for popular properties.
Some say that first-home buyers under the First Home Loan scheme are particularly vulnerable, as the approval process involves multiple steps and can take several days longer than standard applications.
However, banks maintain that their processing times are within acceptable limits, with Kiwibank, ANZ, BNZ, and Westpac all reporting turnaround times ranging from two to seven days.
