"We also have a lot of the baby boomers who might have put off selling their business when the GFC hit and are back in a position where the values have come back in their businesses and they are now getting out."
Heinz Fett, business partner for ABC Business Sales, who focuses on the Rotorua and Taupo regions, said there was very strong interest from people wanting to buy.
"I would say the interest from outside the region is stronger than from locals, and definitely the fact that Kiwis are coming back is having an impact," he said.
"Demand exceeds supply and that is reflected in the prices achieved at sales."
KPMG Tauranga partner, private enterprise, Paul Stott, said interest in acquiring businesses seemed to be on the rise in the region. In recent transactions he had been involved with, businesses had sold with relative ease and were getting the vendor's asking price or close to it, he said.
The brokers said that tourism-related ventures, manufacturing and services business were popular across the region.
"There are a lot of small manufacturing businesses in the $500,000-$1.5m value range," said Mr Brljevich.
A number of small businesses were doing well as a result of the construction boom, manufacturing components such as aluminium windows and joinery, as well as providing heavy equipment hire. There was also activity in companies ranging from import distribution to milking shed maintenance, he said.
"It amazes me that there are so many businesses out there that I never realised even existed."
Mr Brljevich said there was a number of variables when it came to valuing businesses, depending on the sector, the competition and the skills required to successfully run the operation.
"We spend a lot of time with vendors going through the valuation process before we get them to the market."
Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt said the economic development agency tended to be focused on attracting new businesses to set up in or relocate to Tauranga.
"Smaller business buyers tend to go directly to the brokers," he said.
"But what we do see is a lot of people - particularly at this time of the year - who come here on holiday and go, 'wow this is a great place and it's booming.' And they think perhaps buying a business here is a good option. We've had four or five in the past week calling us and saying we want stay here, can you point us in the right direction."
Do homework before commiting
The key takeaway for people looking to buy a business is to ensure they carry out solid due diligence, says Paul Stott, partner, private enterprise with KPMG Tauranga.
"That's something people can sometimes overlook," he said. "They should make sure they involve their legal and accounting advisers prior to committing to purchase - post commitment is a bit too late."
Mr Stott also said that in some cases buyers underestimated the amount of work that would be involved, especially if they had no prior experience in running a small business.
"Again it comes down to them doing the due diligence on what will be involved if it is owner-operated, and the skills that business ownership requires. These are generally not 9-5 businesses."
Buyers had to be careful not to get into a situation where they were outlaying a reasonable amount of capital to effectively buy a job that did not give them much more of a return than if they were working for someone else, he said.
"And without the security of sick leave and holiday pay, and potentially with debt and a lot more stress to go with it."
