City leaders expect the rocketing house sales, solid business growth and increased job opportunities to flow into 2016. Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby said: "There is a new sense about the city that I haven't felt before."
The city was in an "exciting" phase, he said. He was pleased to see young Kiwis returning from overseas and migrating to Tauranga from around the country, as well as an influx of overseas migrants.
However, he warned that despite the boom, "we cannot live off the lifestyle and have to have a strong economy to support a growing population.
"The council has spent a lot of time making sure the developments proceed in an orderly manner ... and to make sure there are jobs."
The optimism came after the Bay of Plenty knocked Auckland off the top spot as New Zealand's best-performing region in the latest ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard. The report showed business confidence was booming and the job market was strong. Ross Stanway, chief executive of Eves and Bayleys Real Estate, said it was "heading towards a record year without a doubt".
Low interest rates, competition between finance lenders and a growing awareness of the region were the main drivers, he said.
The development of new homes and increased commercial property activity in the region had also lifted confidence, he said.
Anton Jones, owner of First National Real Estate in Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Omokoroa, said it had been "the best year".
There had been movement across the board but houses priced over $700,000 - historically a hard-to-sell bracket - were shifting as budgets increased, he said.
Greg Purcell, owner of Ray White Realty Focus in Mount Maunganui and Papamoa, said 2016 would be a good year but he did not think houses in the city would experience the same exponential price climbs.
Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin said the previous boom in 2003 was fuelled by speculators who were buying properties to sell on. In contrast, the current situation reflected solid and sustainable growth. All the economic indicators for next year were positive and in the past three months the firm's house supply had increased by 10 per cent, said Mr Martin.
Scott Adams, director of property developer Carrus, said it was five years ahead of its projections at The Lakes subdivision and had already pre-sold 300 lots that would fall into its 2016 financial year, which started this October.
It sold 180 lots from the previous October to September this year, "so it's quite a big jump", he said.
"Our final year of construction [of The Lakes] was supposed to be 2024, now it's going to be 2019."
Hawridge Developments sales and marketing manager James Garratt said it launched phase two of the Palm Springs development two years ago, and over the past year it experienced 76 per cent growth. It had seen demand for sections increase faster than could be supplied, he said.
Bluehaven Management chief executive Bill Miller said it had sold 16 sections a month on average at Golden Sands in Papamoa and another stage of the development had been opened to cope with strong demand.
Priority One projects manager Annie Hill said the city would be less susceptible to fluctuations in global markets because businesses were expanding and growing local jobs.
"Previously during times of growth, our economy was underpinned by sectors that rely on population growth such as construction and retail. This is just the kind of growth we need for the Western Bay's economy to be sustainable in the medium to long term."
She said Tauranga had the strongest job growth in the country for the past few quarters, and these were often in higher-value jobs related to the growth of innovation as well as professional services that supported these industries.
The latest figures come after it was reported this week that average property values in Tauranga soared more than 15 per cent last month compared with the same month last year - the highest increase in more than 10 years.
Values were 9.2 per cent higher than at the previous peak during 2007, which saw an average of $525,758, the report said.
