Investors and first-home buyers looking to get on the property ladder have helped boost the median property value in Fordlands by almost 30 per cent over the past year.
Fordlands remained Rotorua's cheapest suburb - promoting a surge in demand with properties being snapped up at a median of just12 days, according to a new property report.
Properties were also selling fast in the city's most expensive suburb, Tihiotonga, which recorded a median value of $775,850. Houses in the suburb had the shortest period on the market before selling - an average of just six days.
CoreLogic's Best of the Best 2020 report identifies the top-performing suburbs over the past year and predicts what 2021 might bring.
Experts say the year brought unexpected events, including the strong post-lockdown rebound.
With key drivers including low mortgage rates and a tight supply of listings, it was hard to see the property market being thrown off course in 2021, the report said.
CoreLogic senior property economist Kelvin Davidson said Tauranga and Rotorua had joined in the property upswing since lockdown.
Both cities had a number of suburbs where median values recorded double-digit growth in the past 12 months, he said.
Tihiotonga was also proving popular with plenty of multi-offers, she said.
"It's a good area and people want to be there. It's handy to all amenities and it's quite an exclusive suburb.
"It's got its own niche and a lot of the houses have views.
"We haven't seen any downturn at all. Rotorua has been having really good growth," she said.
"It's been hard for buyers. We've seen so many that are continuously missing out on properties and you see them on their third or fourth multi-offer."
Martelli said she expected the market to continue on the upward trend into the new year.
"I think Covid has meant people are spending more money on their houses and more money on getting to the next level."
Simon Anderson, managing director of Realty Group Limited, which operates Eves and Bayleys. Photo / Andrew Warner
Managing director of Realty Group Limited, which operates Eves and Bayleys, Simon Anderson, said the Bay's market activity post-lockdown had been "unexpected and unprecedented".
"We saw multiple people trying to buy [a single] property. Once they missed out, they became more aggressive towards not missing out again - that's what has been fuelling the market."
Anderson said Tihiotonga offered impressive views over the city and quality homes.
On the other hand, he said there was plenty of investor and first-home buyer activity in Fordlands.
"Investors have come back to the rental market, especially new ones, looking for that yield."
Insights from OneRoof and its data partner Valocity's December report showed median values in Fordlands had jumped 25 per cent to $287,500 year-on-year.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said Fordlands was an "incredibly affordable" suburb.
"That is indicative of where the money is moving in Rotorua. First-home buyers are definitely active in that bottom end of the market," he said.
"They're wanting to get in somewhere cheap and getting anything under $300,000 in New Zealand is really cheap and really rare."
The Bay of Plenty suburb of Kawerau boasted the greatest five-year change in median values at a whopping 200.7 per cent.
Meanwhile in Tauranga, Matua was a strong suburb with a 12 per cent rise in median value in the past 12 months. The suburb also had the largest dollar gain at $102,600.
Mount Maunganui was the most expensive suburb in Tauranga, having now topped the $1 million mark, while Parkvale was the cheapest at $523,150.
Mount Maunganui and Pāpāmoa Ray White franchise owner Greg Purcell said predictions of a downturn in the property market post-lockdown were incorrect and "suddenly there was this tsunami of real estate interest".
"Post-lockdown has been frantic," he said.
Buyers were finding it difficult to get on to the property ladder, he said.
Purcell said the sharp rise in property prices was not going to be sustainable for a long period of time and would need to level off at some point.
"But at the moment, there are no signs of things stopping because it's a supply-and-demand issue and there's a lot of demand and not a lot of supply."
