Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Life in Rotorua suburbs where property values are hot - and not so hot

Rotorua Daily Post
7 Sep, 2017 05:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
John Prentice has enjoyed house values rising in Koutu but worries about people struggling to buy their first homes. Photo/Stephen Parker

John Prentice has enjoyed house values rising in Koutu but worries about people struggling to buy their first homes. Photo/Stephen Parker

By Sinelle Fernandez
John Prentice retired in Koutu 14 years ago and has watched the area grow with new developments.

"Rotorua is a very nice place to live," he said. "The standard of housing is improving here, especially in our suburb."

Not so surprising then, is the rising house values in these streets stretching four blocks west from the shores of Lake Rotorua - almost, but not quite, to State Highway 5.

Koutu is also close to the city, and the Prentices enjoy the "well set up park" on the main road.

Increases in house values in the past three years show Rotorua's property market is far from ready to cool down.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the QV House Price Index released on Monday, figures showed a growth in house value across the country, with the exception of a few suburbs which had decreased.

Across the regions, Rotorua had some of the highest increases of value in the last three years, with some extending well over 100 per cent.

The top three suburbs were Koutu (147.8 per cent), Glenholme (123.5 per cent) and Mangakakahi (101 per cent).

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

As a potential vendor, Mr Prentice said he was alright with the increasing values as he could sell and buy on the same market.

Yet, he agreed this could have a negative effect on people who struggled financially to keep up with the market.

"It worries me," he said.

"It's a country-wide problem that the government hasn't addressed. Recovery in housing and rent has to be led from the top, and that's what the government's job is."

Discover more

Three suburbs lead house value rise

03 Dec 04:00 PM
Koutu has experienced house values rising by 147 per cent in the past three years. Photo/File
Koutu has experienced house values rising by 147 per cent in the past three years. Photo/File

However, Koutu was still decently affordable, he said.

"There are a lot of low-cost houses in Rotorua and particularly in our area. You can buy a reasonable house for $200,000 - you'd probably have to do a bit of work on them, but you can get on the ladder of housing quite easily here."

The median price for June 2014 in Koutu was $100,500. As per May 2017, that number is $249,000.

Although there were no suburbs in which house values decreased over the past three years, some only increased by a small fraction.

Barely 2km west of Mr Prentice, Pukehangi increased 0.6% from an average price of $309,000 in June 2014 to $311,000 in June 2017.

Pukehangi resident Angela Pubben said this could be because not a lot of care goes into some of the houses in some areas.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"More than half the houses [in this area] are not that nice, but there are still good homeowners here that I've met," she said.

She thought it could be the "not as nice" houses are rentals as opposed to owned homes, but said that was just her speculation.

For people who struggled financially, Miss Pubben thought it would have a positive effect, since the increase was small.

The only downside of the area, she said, was local parks could not be enjoyed.

"With the parks and things that we do have, people just wreck them. I always take the kids out of the area [to go to the park].

This, she said, was probably a bigger reason as to why the suburb's overall value had not increased by much in the past three years.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"There's a lot of riff-raff in our area and I wish there wasn't."

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Property

Rotorua Daily Post

Ōhope's most expensive home? Bach by NZ's best beach has expats excited

Premium
Rotorua Daily Post

Developer hopes smaller social houses will please neighbours of $1.4m lakeview site

Premium
Business

New Zealand's top 10 busiest house builders - how they cope with downturn


Sponsored

Kiwi campaign keeps on giving

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Property

Ōhope's most expensive home? Bach by NZ's best beach has expats excited
Rotorua Daily Post

Ōhope's most expensive home? Bach by NZ's best beach has expats excited

“It’s going to suit somebody who wants nothing but the best.”

05 Sep 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Developer hopes smaller social houses will please neighbours of $1.4m lakeview site
Rotorua Daily Post

Developer hopes smaller social houses will please neighbours of $1.4m lakeview site

12 Aug 06:00 PM
Premium
Premium
New Zealand's top 10 busiest house builders - how they cope with downturn
Business

New Zealand's top 10 busiest house builders - how they cope with downturn

06 Aug 10:00 PM


Kiwi campaign keeps on giving
Sponsored

Kiwi campaign keeps on giving

07 Sep 12:00 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP