Investors flee fickle Bay market

Graham Skellern | 11th March 2010

THE Tauranga residential property market has struck a fascinating period. Will it remain fickle or will we witness a new surge of activity?

Buyers who intend to live in their houses are keeping the sales flowing, but the investment market is dead. No doubt, the investors have been put off by the forthcoming tax reform.

They haven't seen the taxation detail and they don't know whether it's worthwhile making a property investment move. Instead, a new trend has appeared.

Those less-sophisticated investors who bought a cheaper, but over-priced, property towards the end of the boom are now offloading them - losing money, and learning it's hard work being a landlord. Burned by the market, they may not return for a while.

Over the past year, there have been 30 sales of standalone houses, not units, under $200,000. Yes, you can still buy a home for that price in Tauranga - though you couldn't two to three years ago.

- Full story in today's Bay of Plenty Times.