PGG Wrightson Real Estate’s Bay of Plenty regional office is shifting to Te Puna.

Comprising a team of eight salespeople and administrators, including specialists in marketing rural, lifestyle, and residential property, Central North Island Sales Manager Camron Meade said the move will improve the company’s capacity to meet its Bay of Plenty clients’ needs.

“Locating in the new TePuna Village precinct puts our award winning salespeople into the heart of orchard activity, linking to PGG Wrightson’s Katikati Fruitfed store, and ideally placed for the Bay of Plenty’s burgeoning lifestyle market.

“Our Tauranga team consistently performs among the best in PGG Wrightson Real Estate’s nationwide network, and from 2016-19 was Real Estate Institute Large Rural Office of the year four times in succession. Lifestyle blocks with a few hectares in crops or orchard are a big part of our business. Our Bay of Plenty salespeople are well qualified and supported by their PGG Wrightson and Fruitfed colleagues to serve the horticulture sector, which to a large degree drives our success. Our new Te Puna office locates us in the heart of this community, further consolidating our capacity to meet the needs of owners of orchards of every size and scale, also putting us in easier reach of many of the country’s most desirable lifestyle localities,” he says.

While recent statistics from the Real Estate Institute indicate the property market cycle is at a low point, Camron Meade sees signs of an upturn.

“Both buyers and sellers are still looking.

“Usually the market goes into hiatus because the various parties cannot agree on fair value. With new stock entering the market in most property sectors in late January, we will soon transition from a balanced market to a buyer’s market. For anyone offering property for sale that makes accurate pricing a critical factor: when vendors are willing to accept revised market values, sales numbers will again begin to elevate.

“Additionally, the recent improvement in the dairy outlook and change of land use adds competition, which is likely to increase demand for rural property and therefore reanimate that market sector,” he says.

While lifestyle property market activity has also been subdued recently, longer term trends, evident since mid-2020, should re-establish in the coming months.

“Covid and the lockdowns spurred people and businesses to consider operating away from the office, with improved lifestyle options and cheaper running costs. Working remotely is becoming better understood and accepted, pushing demand for lifestyle property, particularly within relatively easy reach of metropolitan centres, which the Bay of Plenty provides in abundance. Although many people want to leave the city, they are keen to remain within an easy drive. Security, health, and a good family environment, alongside an easy climate and plenty of access to recreational activities put the Bay of Plenty a sweet spot for those considerations.

“Although the lifestyle property market has been relatively quiet in recent months, those prevailing factors, which make this one of the country’s most desirable lifestyle regions, are not going to change,” says Camron.