Mr Cooney said the price of the property was "relative" to its size location, area and views.
"It's a great site, great location, and it's got great views ... hence my attraction to it," he said.
"I think it's in keeping with what's happening in the Mount.
"There are very few properties of that size available to do homes that give you a reasonable size area of land."
The sale price rates as the sixth highest in the Mount area over the past two years, although it has not yet been included in QV figures provided to the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
The most expensive property to sell in Mount Maunganui in the last two years was on Marine Parade and went for $6.6 million.
An adjoining property on Muricata Ave was sold to the same people on the same day.
The owners could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Manager of Eves Reality Mount Maunganui Trevor Hansen said many developers and investors were buying multiple sections to make "modern, bigger houses".
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In other cases, a number of town houses might end up being built, Mr Hansen said.
He expected the development of new houses would continue.
"There is more and more of that happening."
Tauranga Harcourts general manager and director Nigel Martin agreed people were buying full sites and building big homes.
"That tends to be happening more than people buying a full site and cutting it in half to have two properties on.
"What we are seeing more people doing is wanting to build bigger homes in the Mount and have family homes rather than a developer coming in and cutting up properties and doing two smaller homes," he said.
Owner of Ray White Realty Focus Greg Purcell said due to the limited number of sections left at Mount Maunganui, people would be willing to pay "big money".
He said some house sales in the area were "almost purely driven by land", with some modest houses turning into "extremely good sales".
Master Builders Association Tauranga president Johnny Calley said although buying and selling of properties next to each other for new builds had been happening in Mount Maunganui for three or four years, but it was happening "a lot more now".
He described it as "common" practice.
He was also seeing a lot of people buying sections to sub-divide.
Mr Calley said he thought buying multiple sites and building a new house was a good idea.
"It's upgrading the streetscape. A lot of the houses are older and in need of repairs or replacement," he said.
"It also lifts the value of the street."
