Mount Maunganui has recorded the highest median value in 2019. Photo / File
Mount Maunganui has recorded the highest median value in 2019. Photo / File
Tauranga's suburbs have been analysed in a new report to determine how the property market has performed in 2019. Property reporter Zoe Hunter finds out what the city's most expensive and most affordable suburbs are.
The suburbs with the second and third-lowest median value were Gate Pā ($502,800) and Poike ($507,950).
CoreLogic's 2019 Best of the Best New Zealand report is a suburb analysis of a variety of measures to determine property market performance across the year.
Poike recorded the greatest 12-month change in median property value of 10.1 per cent, while Gate Pā had the greatest five-year change of 84 per cent.
Homes in Pāpāmoa spent the longest on the market at 49 days, while homes in Bellevue spent the shortest time on the market at 24 days.
CoreLogic head of research Nick Goodall said Tauranga's performance was consistent.
However, Goodall said there were certainly parts of Tauranga that were up there among the most expensive.
Tremains Bay of Plenty general manager Anton Jones said it was understandable Pyes Pā had recorded the lowest 12-month change in value.
There were plenty of new builds in areas such as Pyes Pā and Pāpamoa, which affected the suburbs' median values, he said.
Jones said Poike and Parkvale had proven popular in the last few months of the year.
"Poike hasn't had the big gains we have seen previously in other areas, but it is still a popular place," he said.
Tremains Bay of Plenty general manager Anton Jones. Photo / File
"Parkvale once again has been popular recently. It will see an increase over the next while because it hasn't been really popular, but it is coming to be the flavour of the month especially with first-home buyers."
Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin said it was no surprise Mount Maunganui had the highest median value.
"The Mount is one of the more desirable suburbs in New Zealand with what it has got to offer, and there is the fact there is no more land available," he said.
Martin said Parkvale was "good buying" in Tauranga with its low entry-level and access to shopping areas and good schools.
Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin. Photo / Supplied
"That is where first-home buyers should be looking," he said. "It is certainly an up and coming area."
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said there was a lot of unease in the property market at the start of 2019 due to the Capital Gains Tax and changes to tax breaks that property investors enjoyed.
However, there was more confidence in the market towards the end of the year.
"We have seen Tauranga keep gaining in terms of property value and we have seen some big sale prices," he said.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan. Photo / File
"It feels like the unease and nervousness in the market has left."
Looking forward to 2020, Vaughan expected Tauranga's house prices to continue to grow on the back of record low interest rates and positive momentum in the market.
A 'Mountie' since the 1980s
Michael O'Neill has lived in the Mount since 1981. Photo / George Novak
Michael O'Neill has lived in Mount Maunganui since the early 1980s.
"We came here for the beach."
Since moving to the area, O'Neill said the house prices had been on an upward trend.
"Certainly there has been an exponential rise in the last few years because of the limited availability of land."
As well as rising house prices, there had been many changes to the Mount since O'Neill moved there in the early 1980s.
"There was no bridge across to Tauranga then. It was more of a holiday destination. The bridge significantly changed the whole dimension of the Mount."
O'Neill said there was a certain buzz in the Mount that could not be found anywhere else.
"It has just got that holiday feel about it."
O'Neill said he felt proud to call the Mount his home, but wouldn't call himself lucky.
"At the end of the day most people have worked hard to get there."
