STRESSED home owners and investors are flooding the market with thousands of houses but agents say they can't find any serious buyers for some properties.
As home mortgage lending in Queensland dives for the second consecutive quarter, the number of houses for sale is up 150 per cent compared with the same time last year.
There were 4750 new listings added this week - 1842 in Brisbane.
Almost 40,000 residential properties are listed for sale across the state, compared with 15,900 last year.
Auction clearance rates are suffering in the slowdown.
At yesterday's Ray White's corporate auction, just one of 11 properties was sold under the hammer. The three-bedroom unit in Casino Towers sold for $705,000.
It was a similar story last week, when 12 properties were put to market, and only one - a Norman Park home - was sold for $840,500.
The marketing agent for a prime residential site near the Brisbane River said a recent auction of the property failed to get any bids.
And the one buyer who showed some interest had now gone cold.
"Just finding anyone interested has been a problem - last year there would have been a handful," the agent said.
At yesterday's auction chief auctioneer Philip Parker said he was surprised when just two early bids were heard for an inner-city house.
"It's good real estate - you'd think you'd have more (bids) than that," he said.
Mortgage broker AFG, which accounts for 10 per cent of the national market, said there were 29.3 per cent fewer mortgages written in June compared with the same time the previous year.
Recent research shows that more than 155,000 Queensland households are now suffering mortgage stress. About a third of those are struggling to meet their loan repayments.
As well as disappointing vendors, the dive in sales volumes (up to 50 per cent in some suburbs) is leading to a shake-up in the real estate sales industry, with agencies on the verge of laying off staff.
Real estate agency staff numbers have rocketed since early 2001.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland managing director Dan Molloy said that over the past seven years the number of REIQ-accredited agencies had increased by about 30 per cent.
However he said the present number of agencies had remained stable, despite a softer marketplace.
"However, some agencies may be consolidating sales staff numbers and property management activity during this time," Mr Molloy said.
