Mount Maunganui homes dominate Tauranga's property gains

By Zoe Hunter

Bay of Plenty Times·

3 Mar, 2020 07:10 PM4 mins to read

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Four Mount homes made CoreLogic's latest Pain and Gain report. Photo / George Novak

Chances are your home has made a profit in the past five years. But where in the city were the biggest gains made at resale during the last quarter of 2019? Property reporter Zoe Hunter looks into CoreLogic's latest Pain and Gain report.

Four Mount Maunganui homes that each sold for more than $1 million have made CoreLogic's list of top five Tauranga properties that gained the most resale profit.

The company's latest Pain and Gain report showed a home at 241b Oceanbeach Rd made the biggest gain of $2.8m. The home was bought in 1997 for $721,000 and sold last year for $3.6m.

Another Oceanbeach Rd home sold for $1.7m above its sale price in 1991, while a Pitau Rd home made $933,000 and a Macville Rd home gained $855,000.
A Matua home also sold for $1.03m above its sale price in 1996.

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Tauranga residents who sold their home between October 1 and December 31, 2019, made a median profit of $245,000 per property and a gross profit of $95,145,739.
The homes were sold after a median of 5.5 years.

The median for Tauranga properties sold at a loss was $20,000, with a gross loss of $347,500. Properties that resold at a loss were owned for a median 2.9 years.

CoreLogic senior research analyst Kelvin Davidson. Photo / File

CoreLogic senior research analyst Kelvin Davidson said solid gains in property values delivered large profits for people who held onto their properties for a decent period of time.

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"Of course, as always, any 'profit' often just has to be put back into the next property (which will have also gone up in value), but downsizers or landlords as examples could potentially be freeing up cash."

Meanwhile, the latest OneRoof property Report showed median values in Maungatapu ($630,000), Parkvale ($475,000), Gate Pā ($500,000), Judea ($530,000) and Mount Maunganui ($775,000) all jumped between 5 and 6 per cent in the last year.

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General manager of Tremains Bay of Plenty and Waikato, Anton Jones, said the top end of the market was still sought after and profits remained for those who held on to their homes for a longer period of time.

"You would expect those types of gains over that five-year period," he said.

However, Jones said things had changed in the past few months with properties in the top end of the market proving a little harder to sell.

Jones said there had been a "bit of a late spring rush" with the market starting to pick up a little later than usual in mid-November.

"There were not as many houses on the market and the demand built up and it hasn't stopped since," he said. "We had a good January and a record February."

Most of those buyers were first-home buyers and investors, he said.

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Jones said his Tauranga office sold about half a dozen homes for over $1m in the last quarter of 2019, including properties from the Mount, Tauriko and Bethlehem.

Heath Young, chief executive of Bayleys and Eves Realty. Photo / File

Heath Young, chief executive of Bayleys and Eves Realty, said it was no surprise that gains were produced in property markets where steady price growth occurred in the past five years.

"Price growth [is] simply caused by the demand for property outstripping new housing supply," he said.

Young said demand coming from regional migration into the area, job and population growth along with investors from outside the region were also contributors to big gains.

Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin said the suburbs with the most gains were areas where there was not much land left to develop.

"We also have a situation where we have got quite a good solid demand for property in those areas. Supply has diminished a bit, which puts pressure on pricing."

Fisher Funds chief investment officer Frank Jasper. Photo / File

Fisher Funds chief investment officer Frank Jasper said there was often a perspective from people that they should put any saved capital into the bank and live off the proceeds.

But Jasper said people should have a longer-term perspective on how to invest their money after retirement.

"We need to be thoughtful about the fact we might have 20 or 30 years in retirement," he said.

"Investors still need their money to work hard. That means investments in growth asset like shares are still important."