A sudden spike in multi-million-dollar property sales in Tauranga has boosted the upper-end of the city’s housing market, with agents telling OneRoof that buyers are finally deciding to upgrade after months of hesitation.
A large waterfront home in Matua with unobstructed views and lifestyle properties in Bethlehem, Tauriko and Te Puna are among the properties that have scored an impressive $2 million-plus in the last month.
Luxury real estate agency Oliver Road has sold four properties priced between $2 and $3m, including a lifestyle property on Sunny Downs Drive, in Tauriko, which sold for its asking price of $2.35m, as well as properties on Elder Lane and Moffat Road in Bethlehem that were yet to settle, but also sold in the mid-$2m price range. The agency also had two more offers on two others in the same price range.
Oliver Road salesperson Jason Eves said the bump in high sales came on the back of a relatively low sale volume at all levels of the market in 2024. It was also in line with the high-end real estate agency’s own annual trend which showed more sales happening in May and June than any other time of the year.
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However, he said it was too early to suggest a trend based on one strong month, especially when some of the sales had been in the pipeline for several months. Some of the buyers had first looked at the properties they eventually purchased before Christmas, he added.
“With many buyers having not committed to a purchase in the turmoil of the last couple of years, it is conceivable that there is now an effective backlog of serious active buying interest, which at some point might coincide to create a significant upturn in sales activity ... but any explanation of this recent bump beyond coincidence is not clear to us at this time.”
Tremains managing director Anton Jones said higher priced properties had been harder to get over the line while people were being more cautious, but in the last couple of months they had noticed more interest in those higher-end homes.
“We kind of go through that in this market that it changes on a monthly or even a two-weekly basis in the residential side of things. You just have changes and there’s no rhyme or reason in some respects and people just start looking and start talking about those sort of levels and it seems to be a bit more of the flavour those weeks or those couple of weeks.”
A modern lifestyle property on Sunny Downs Drive, in Tauriko, recently sold for $2.35m. Photo / Supplied
Jones said smaller lifestyle properties on the outskirts of the city such as a home on Munro Road, in Te Puna, that sold in the high-$1ms or properties in central locations such as a lifestyle property on Moffat Road in Bethlehem that sold for $2m-plus had easy access to the city and were in popular school zones were particularly in demand.
“Given the traffic problems we’ve got in Tauranga at the moment, those inner-city suburbs tend to be a little bit more appealing.”
Sales were still taking longer to go through due to many of the deals being subject to sale, he said. This was because they wanted to make sure they had a house to move to, but also wanted the certainty of knowing how much they would get for theirs before taking the plunge.
Bayleys Bay of Plenty general manager Jon O’Connor said the properties his agency had sold that had fetched significant $2m-plus prices were all unique, quality properties.
A large four-bedroom, two-bathroom waterfront home on Waratah Street, in Matua, had only been on the market for sale for a week before it was snapped up by a local family.
A six-bedroom, three-bathroom property on Gill Road, in Te Puna, which had a swimming pool and tennis court was also another impressive property that had recently sold.
“They are two high-end sales, but completely different. One is in the suburbs and one is semi-rural. One is on a smaller site with big views and one is out in the country on a large lifestyle block.”
A five-bathroom, three-bedroom home on Moffat Road, which had an asking price of $2.5m, was one of several properties in Bethlehem to sell in the $2m-plus price bracket. Photo / Supplied
Another big sale in the area was this large property on Moffat Road. Buyers have been drawn to Bethlehem's easy city access and good school zones. Photo / Supplied
A new lifestyle property on Miles Lane in Tauriko, which had an asking price of $2.48m, was also sold by Bayleys this month.
The buyers of higher-end homes appeared to be local buyers looking to upsize, he said.
“Those properties are attracting some passive buyers who didn’t know they were in the market for a house until the house that they always loved or on the street they’ve always wanted to be in pops up so then all of a sudden they are wanting to get into a position to make that move.”
O’Connor said the lift in high sales came on the back of some significant sales in Mount Maunganui, which usually led the way first before Tauranga followed a few months later.
However, Trueman & Co agent Craig Orr said buyers who had been trying to move into their next home had been struggling to get what they needed for their existing home to move forward, but it suddenly felt like things had started to change.
“Obviously that first-home buyer market has been cranking, but I think now people are starting to think that interest rates may start to come down maybe towards the end of this year or start of next year so getting in now is probably a good thing for buyers so they are actually pulling the triggers on properties rather than just walking through them,” he said.
“There are some good signs that the market is on the move.”
While Orr said most of the buyers were locals, he had just this week sold a property in Bethlehem that was also close to $2m to Aucklanders looking to move down. The buyers had cashed out an earlier offer that had been subject to a house sale.
“It’s probably more a lifestyle choice than a monetary one like it was back in 2015 when that last market started to move, but they are still coming.”
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