$2.8m rebuild for prime Mount Maunganui site

The council has issued more building consents this year than any year since 2004.

A $2.8 million development at the southern end of Marine Pde is just one of the $38 million worth of residential building projects consented by Tauranga City Council last month.

The three-storey project is set to see four new townhouses completed by April 2016.

Down from a nine-year high of more than $66 million in June, July was a slower month but still in-line with "big picture" growth, Priority One projects manager Annie Hill said.

Priority One projects manager Annie Hill.

Residential consents were up by nearly $5 million on the same month last year.

For the seven months to July, Tauranga City Council issued $332.78 million worth of consents - the highest value of consents for any year since 2004.

"Each time we do that we're breaking records," she said of the month-on-month comparison.

In July alone, four consents were approved every day.

An artist's impression of the four townhouses due to be completed by April 2016.

"Over the last seven months, at least, we've seen things rocket," she said.

"Residential is busy across the board."

The value of commercial building consents was less than usual with only $3.4 million in July - compared to a whopping $25.6 million in June - but Ms Hill said commercial figures often fluctuated depending on when big projects were happening.

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stan Gregec said Tauranga housing was seeing a spin-off from the Auckland market, as people discovered "the opportunity and value of moving to Tauranga".

"It would be even better if the housing growth was being fuelled by business growth. There's always a danger that the two things get out of whack," he said.

At Mount Maunganui, the Marine Parade development was one of two major consents (worth more than $1 million) approved last month.

The other was a $1.2 million project at Papamoa's Pacific Coast Village for four two-bedroom units plus two other dwellings.

A spokesman for the Marine Pde development said two of the four houses were on the market for between $1.5 million and $2 million.

He and his wife would be living in the third and his business partner would be living in the fourth.

They had bought the property a few years ago before demolishing the old accommodation block.

"It was probably the worst property on the street so people are pretty happy to see it come down.

"We're doing something that's really innovative and we're making a real change to that end of Marine Pde."

There had been interest in the two townhouses but people were "reluctant to commit that amount of money without seeing it finished", he said.

However, he was confident they would sell once completed.

"Ours are unusual that they're new houses for the market at the Mount."

Townhouse-style living was the new reality if people wanted the prime location, as there was less land available, he said.