High sales volumes push Tauranga house prices up

Another month of high sales volumes has pushed Tauranga house prices up 12.5 per cent, REINZ figures show.

The median price of houses selling in the city last month was $360,000, up $40,000 from January.

Tauranga recorded 125 sales in February, compared to 115 in January and 117 in February 2012.
Mount Maunganui and Papamoa saw an even larger rise of $45,000 over the period, a percentage jump of 11.5 per cent.

Sales volumes on the coastal strip experienced a dramatic improvement in February - up 77 per cent from January (from 53 to 94), however the number of sales was actually down 5 per cent compared to February last year.

Sales numbers in the Western Bay of Plenty rose 53 per cent from January to February, and the median price rose from $361,250 to $387,000.

Over the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region the median house price rose from $312,500 in January to $324,500 last month - the highest February since 2008.

Throughout New Zealand residential property sales climbed to the highest level for the month in six years with the number of sales up 34 per cent on January.

The national median price rose 7.6 per cent to $382,000 compared to February 2012 but remains below the record $389,000 established in December 2012.