Property prices across the Western Bay of Plenty remain down on 2007 peak figures, but entry level houses in several Tauranga suburbs are on the rise.
While Auckland experiences a boom, house prices throughout most of the rest of the country - including the Western Bay - have stalled.
The best performing areas since November 2007 are Bethlehem, Maungatapu and Ohauiti. These three suburbs are the only areas with market drop of less than 5 per cent, the rest fare much worse, including Mount Maunganui which is down 10.2 per cent since its peak.
The worst hit area is Pukehina, down a staggering 31.6 per cent since 2007 - the worst hit region in the upper North Island.
But it's not all bad news. In the past 12 months, several Tauranga suburbs have seen an improvement in the average price of the properties sold.
And the average price of six of the best-performing growth suburbs - Brookfield, Bellevue, Welcome Bay, Hairini, Judea and Greerton - is below $325,000, with three of those below $300,000.
Greg Purcell, Ray White franchise owner for Mount Maunganui and Papamoa, said it wasn't surprising entry-level properties were being snapped up.
"That's middle New Zealand and that's where the biggest part of the buyers lurk. And that's where investors are coming back [to] too. Those areas have readily accessible schools and readily established facilities. It's quite healthy - when that [the low end of the market] moves, everything will flow on from that. It's healthy that sector is doing well," he said.
Simon Martin, of Harcourts Advantage Realty, said bottom-end properties were often the best value, and were a great place for buyers to enter the market.
"If you look at [houses] under $350,000, you can't actually replace that property. You couldn't buy the land and build for that. So people know that's good value for money," he said.
Much of the property movement in those areas was first home-buyers, he said. "People are getting into first home-buying and cashing up Kiwisaver. People are thinking, 'Let's get on the ladder.'
"[And] I think in Tauranga, the average income would show, that's the sort of value of houses that are really going to be in demand," he said.
Ross Stanway, chief executive of Realty Services, which operates Bayleys and Eves, said houses in the lower end of the market were attractive to a lot of people.
"It's well known that first home-buyers are in the market and they have a good chance to buy properties [in these suburbs that are] ... close to the city's amenities and close to schools," he said.
LJ Hooker franchise owner Neville Falconer said low-end properties, and even those priced as high as $400,000, were always the first to change hands.
"We have a term: 'the go-to price bracket'. There's [always] solid demand for reasonable properties in that price bracket," he said.