Real estate agents expect a pick-up in house sales in the next couple of months following an all-time low in January.
The Real Estate Institute says house sales last month were the lowest for any month since it began publishing records in 1992.
REINZ chief executive Helen O'Sullivan says many potential sellers have not been confident about getting the price they want, so have been resisting putting their properties on the market.
However, she says the financial climate is not likely to get better or worse in the short term, so the institute expects house sales to improve in the next two months because potential sellers will stop delaying.
