The increases reflected what had been happening year-on-year with average values. Quotable Value spokeswoman Andrea Rush told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend that Merivale was the suburb selling at the highest percentage above the rating valuations, followed by Greerton and Gate Pa which were both tracking at an average of 55 per cent above rating valuations.
Merivale, also known as Parkvale in official databases, featured a house at 464 Fraser St that sold for $525,000 - an increase of $215,000 or 69 per cent above valuation.
The monthly QV House Price Index figures to January 2017 showed the average value across the whole of Tauranga had increased 35.1 per cent since the latest revaluation, which was based on the property sales market as at July 1, 2015.
Rating valuations were independently assessed using mass appraisal techniques including an analysis of sales during the revaluation year.
Mr Stanway said the groundswell of people looking for affordable houses showed how the marketplace in Tauranga was evolving and maturing. He highlighted how the working-class Auckland suburb of Ponsonby that his father had grown up in was now the complete opposite.
"It leads to a whole new look for some suburbs."
First National Tauranga owner Anton Jones said investors were active in this marketplace, with higher percentage increases because they were calculated on lower base figures.
"A lot of Auckland investors came down in the middle of last year," he said.
Escalating values across the whole of Tauranga were also having a flow-on effect. "If people can't find a good place in Welcome Bay or Otumoetai, they will go to Merivale or Greerton."
Mr Jones said people were getting priced out of the suburbs that they really wanted to live in.
Tauranga Harcourts managing director Simon Martin said these suburbs had price points that appealed to a lot of people.
And although he took rating valuations "with a grain of salt" because they were historic and came out of a computer generated programme, they did give an indication of where a market or an area of the city was tracking.
Impressive gains above rating valuations in Tauranga's southern suburbs
Merivale
14 Esk St: 79 per cent increase to $680,000
464 Fraser St: 69 per cent increase to $525,000
20 Baycroft Ave: 60 per cent increase to $345,000
29B Landview Rd: 58 per cent increase to $390,000
4 Wembury Grove: 57 per cent increase to $325,000
Greerton
26A Stirling Grove: 73 per cent increase to $560,000
10A Stirling Grove: 70 per cent increase to $500,000
81C Chadwick Rd: 68 per cent increase to $505,000
49 Carlisle St: 65 per cent increase to $607,500
11 Mansels Rd: 62 per cent increase to $573,000
Gate Pa
19 Manson St: 72 per cent increase to $600,000
32A Hillstone Av: 72 per cent increase to $440,000
5 Arden St: 67 per cent increase to $495,000
10A Watling St: 62 per cent increase to $449,000
3 Neil Place: 60 per cent increase to $462,500