House sales in Nelson and Marlborough collapsed last month but new sales people are said to be joining in Estate Institute branch, according to the President Vaughan Borcovsky. The fact that the company, Summit Real Estate headed by Mr. Borcovsky, employed 15 new sales people with no one leaving the company in the last three months supports the statement.

According to the real estate Institute figures, in spite of the lowest dip in last 20 years in the sales of house in Marlborough last month, the prices remained up by 15.3% on January 2009. The figures are almost same nationally with just a 1.6% decrease.

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand President Peter McDonald said, "January's 3666 house sales was the lowest monthly total since electronic records began in 1992 and was only the second time the total figure had dipped under 4000".

As of now, the Government has denied the proposals of introducing a land tax, a comprehensive capital gains tax or a new tax on residential investment properties, and the Real Estate Institute expects the market to get better.

Mr. Borcovsky elaborated, "Many firms had struggled to replace salespeople who had left during the past few years. We've not seen people interested in getting into real estate up until six months ago. The region's median sale price had increased 11%, from $306,000 to $341,250, compared with last year. That's more indication of the middle to upper market moving again. There had also been a noticeable increase in listings in recent weeks".