Property surge boosts businesses

FILE

A surge in property sales in Rotorua is having a flow-on effect on local businesses, who are enjoying an increase in work thanks to the booming property market.

The Rotorua Daily Post spoke with local furniture movers, a cleaning business and a truck rental company yesterday, who had noticed an increase in work from houses being sold in the city.

Figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) earlier this month showed 159 houses sold in Rotorua in October, up 24.2 per cent from the previous month and up 71 per cent from October 2014.

A Rotorua moving company, Bloke with a Truck, owner Dave Jillett said he was flat out at the moment.

"It has picked up in the last three to four months. There was a bit of a quiet patch at the start of this month and at the end of October, but other than that it has been flat out," he said.

"We only have two free days next week and we have jobs booked right through to January."

He said most of the work was coming from tenants moving between rental properties or people buying and selling their homes.

ChemDry Rotorua owner Amanda Steer said they were noticing more cleaning jobs coming in, from people moving into homes in the area.

"We do move-out cleans but the main thing we have noticed is the number of move-in cleans," she said.

"There has definitely been an increase in the last little while, and it means people know that the cleaning has been done properly."

Another Rotorua moving company, Glenn's Helping Hands, owner Glenn Sherlock said things were picking up.

However, he said a lot of people opted to move themselves rather than hire someone to do it for them.

"You get a lot more people now days that try and do it themselves as they don't have enough money [to hire someone]."

Rent a Dent Rotorua spokeswoman Tracey Denize said they had two furniture trucks to rent, and they were often booked out.

She said they could be driven on a standard driver's licence so were quite popular with people doing their own moves.