NZ investor fails to sell property even after dropping price $100,000

New Zealand property investor Matthew Ryan was among the first to speak publicly about the house market downturn, and choosing to face reality, he dropped the price of one of his Kāpiti Coast properties NZ$100,000 ($89,634) in March.

He was even prepared to take a loss, but after the reduction, the property still received no offers.

"I was surprised at the time, I really thought it would sell with a drop of $100,000, but I guess it showed the market was sicker than what the stats were showing," he said.

Investor Matthew Ryan spent $100,000 renovating this Kāpiti Coast property, for a $20-per-week profit. (Stuff)

"When you're in a falling market you're always playing catch up."

After receiving no offers at the revised price of NZ$699,000 ($626,546), he pulled the property off the market and put it back into the rental pool.

Ryan said many other investors were doing the same thing, which was contributing to the recent rental glut that was putting downward pressure on rents.

Ryan said he had been renting the property for NZ$675 ($605) per week before the renovation and was now rented for NZ$695 ($623).

Wellington-based property investor Matthew Ryan says he received a lot of heat for saying the market was falling. (Monique Ford/Stuff)

"Admittedly it got snapped up pretty quickly, but no one would spend NZ$100,000 renovating a property to get an extra NZ$20 ($17.95) per week," he said.

"That property isn't a great rental property because it doesn't get great rent for its value, but that was really the only option."

Ryan said the property had good numbers of people going through on open days while it was on the market.

"I remember my partner said in the last week we had about six or seven parties I thought were going to offer, but it ended up being a bit of a fizzer."