Barfoot and Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson has urged those needing to sell to "simply get on with it," adding "don't be fooled into holding off until after the election because there will likely be increased competition at that stage." His comments came as Barfoot and Thompson announced that total sales for the month of August dropped 34% from August last year. The average sale price for the month of August was NZ$524,248, up 5.4% on July. The number of new listings for the month was 1,078, down by almost a third from the monthly average this year of 1,500. Available listings at the end of August were up 44% from a year ago, at 6,835 from 4,744. "The most noticeable feature of the month was the low number of new listings signed up," said Managing Director Peter Thompson. "Clearly vendors are nervous about putting their properties on the market at this time and that is probably being compounded by the looming election," he said."Every three years we see the uncertainty surrounding the pending election flow through into the property market. Vendors tend to want to hold off until post-election when the outcome is known. I would urge those who need to sell to simply get on with it." The average weekly rent for the real estate agent's 667 managed rental properties remained static from July at $384, compared with $368 a year ago.