CoreLogic senior research analyst Kelvin Davidson said a rise in Tauranga home values in recent years meant both investors and homeowners were likely to make a significant profit at resale.
However, Davidson said mortgaged investors were the real winners, accounting for 28 per cent of purchases in Tauranga which was above 25 per cent nationally.
"So this does suggest that investors are keen on Tauranga, even though gross rental yields are relatively low at 3.3 per cent," he said.
OneRoof editor Owen Vaughan said Tauranga was the only main centre where investor profits (98.8 per cent) outstripped those of owner-occupiers (97.7 per cent).
"These underscore the attraction of the city's property market - investors see it as a place in which they can grow their wealth," he said.
The amount Tauranga property owners gained at resale was further proof of the region's strong growth in the last five years.
"The level of profits property owners both in Bay of Plenty and elsewhere are making on their house sales are allowing them greater freedom when it comes to their next property decision," Vaughan said.
"But they still need to mindful of the amount of debt they are carrying into their next property."
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Bayleys Tauranga branch manager Dickie Burman believed first home buyers and investors were on a "level playing field" with both seeing Tauranga as a popular place to live.
"It is a growing city. We haven't got the big city issues," he said. "People come here because of the lifestyle. It is a great place to live."
Simon Anderson, chief executive of Realty Group, which operates Eves and Bayleys, said it was no surprise to see that amount of gain over a six-year period.
"Over that six-year period we have seen a lot of capital gain made in Tauranga," he said.
First National, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga and Ōmokoroa owner Anton Jones said the amount of profit gained at resale depended on when the property was purchased and at what price.
"The market has been going up in the last few years. So it depends on when they bought it and when they sold it," he said.
"There is a lot of people buying and selling who were adding value to a property by doing the old houses up."
Tauranga's Sue Harrison rebuilt her 1980s Grace Rd home from the ground up to bring the build into the 21st Century.
The Tauranga company she hired for the rebuild, Calley Homes Limited, was awarded the Bay of Plenty Central Plateau Registered Master Builders 2018 Supreme Renovation of the Year.
Harrison said her mother- and father-in-law had always lived on the site - initially in a home they had bought in the 1950s before they rebuilt on the same location in 1988.
"It was the last bit of the family farm," she said.
Harrison and her husband bought the three-bedroom home when her mother-in-law died a few years ago and later decided to renovate.
"We didn't have to; we just wanted a more attractive house ...," Harrison said. "It was perfectly liveable it was just dated."
The couple added double glazing and insulation for a more "modernised and thermally efficient" home.
"It is probably worth another third again to what it was," Harrison said.
However, the Harrisons do not plan to resell and will instead retire in their newly-renovated waterfront home.
"This had to be our last home it needed to be new and ready to go," Harrison said.
