"There has been solid demand from first-home buyers in areas such as Greerton where renovated three bedroom homes on half sites, are now selling for $550,000 up from around $450,000 a year ago."
"This is partly driven by the area's fringe CBD location and close proximity of the ever-growing commercial/retail hub in Tauriko."
The Western Bay of Plenty market increased 5.2% year on year and 1.6% over the past three months.
The average value in the district was $627,634, 39.3% higher than in 2007.
Hume said lifestyle properties were still in demand, especially from people looking for "better bang for their buck" than they could get in Tauranga.
"It's been a slower start to spring than usual with activity being hampered by an unusually wet spring and with the election result taking a while to be decided."
"We are no longer seeing the frantic buying seen during 2015 and 2016 but people are still achieving good sales prices it's just values are no longer rising at the rate they were previously."