{"id":164846,"date":"2025-12-02T20:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T20:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164846\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T20:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T20:31:09","slug":"bay-of-plenty-property-market-first-home-buyers-drive-tauranga-housing-as-values-trend-upward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164846\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay of Plenty property market: First-home buyers drive Tauranga housing as values trend upward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe recent mortgage rate cuts, and likely another OCR cut, will stimulate the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Velocity\u2019s suburb statistics, which analyse suburbs with more than 20 sales in the past year, showed Tauriko had the highest average value in the Bay of Plenty, $1.793m. <\/p>\n

This was followed by Mount Maunganui at $1.556m, Matua at $1.198m and Bethlehem with $1.101m.<\/p>\n

Matua saw the highest three-month increase in suburb property value, a difference of 3%. <\/p>\n

Shum said first-home buyers were still the leading buyer group<\/a> in the region, but there was a hint of investor activity in recent months.<\/p>\n

\"WayneWayne Shum, Valocity senior research analyst. Photo \/ Fiona Goodall<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it is too soon to tell if that is sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

EVES Real Estate Bay of Plenty manager Mark Leach said sales volume and inquiries had been \u201csteady\u201d in the past six months, but he had noticed a \u201csharp\u201d upward trend in the past four weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel this is due to the looming deadline of Christmas and the end of the year, as buyers want to secure their new home by then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leach told the Bay of Plenty Times first-home buyers were \u201cextremely active\u201d in the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is followed by the upgraders or aspirational buyers, and we are seeing a few more investors back out looking, a few buying, but they still aren\u2019t making up massive numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said first-home buyer activity<\/a> was picking up in the $700,000 to $900,000 price point. <\/p>\n

\u201cProperties that are fully renovated and turn-key ready are attracting a lot of attention from buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

EVES auction results from November 20 indicated houses between the $700,000 to $1m were selling well. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe first-home buyer segment stands out as the strongest buyer group in the Bay of Plenty. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n

\u201cProperties that are attracting strong interest aren\u2019t lasting long on the market, and we are seeing an increase in pre-auction offers and brought forward auctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bower Real Estate<\/a> managing director Anton Jones said the decrease in interest rates meant buyers were more active, and auction clearance rates and multi-offers were increasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is a sign the market is starting to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said new builds were the \u201cquietest\u201d sector, entry-level homes were moving well and the kiwifruit sector was seeing some inquiries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll other areas\/sectors with well-presented, realistically priced homes are generally getting reasonable interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Bower director and head of sales Hayden Duncan (left) and managing director Anton Jones (right). Photo \/ Brydie Thompson<\/p>\n

Ray White Tauranga salesperson Kim Watt said there had been a \u201cnoticeable\u201d lift in open home numbers recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cPricing across September to November shows the Bay of Plenty market trending upward gradually, but certainly in a better place than this time last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said first-home buyers and investors remained the most active groups, particularly in the $650,000 to $850,000 range.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith interest rates easing, buyer confidence has improved and entry-level homes are selling especially well, supported by the return of both first-home buyers and investors,\u201d Leach said. <\/p>\n

Bayleys Bay of Plenty residential sales and project manager Jon O\u2019Connor said he had seen a clear lift in activity since late winter. <\/p>\n

\u201cInquiry levels are up, open homes are busier, as in our auction room, and sales volumes across the Bay of Plenty have improved on last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor said first-home buyers were driving most of the activity and were shopping in the mid $700,000s to mid $900,000s. <\/p>\n

\u201cFirst home buyers are back in force. They\u2019re well prepared and very focused on value and low maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said prices were stable and \u201cwell-presented\u201d homes were attracting stronger competition than a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forecast for price growth in 2026 is promising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe recent mortgage rate cuts, and likely another OCR cut, will stimulate the market.\u201d Velocity\u2019s suburb statistics, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[806,1561,138,3237,4480,36023,3339,225,111,139,69,1118,1562,814,1227,1142,1141,9342],"class_list":["post-164846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-as","tag-bay","tag-business","tag-buyers","tag-drive","tag-firsthome","tag-housing","tag-market","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-plenty","tag-property","tag-tauranga","tag-trend","tag-upward","tag-values"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}