Kiwi Business Feeling the Effect of the Housing Boom

Kiwi Business Feeling the Effect of the Housing Boom

It’s no secret that as the property market boom continues in Auckland, city-dwellers are selling up and moving into the city’s surrounding regions.

Data released from CoreLogic showed that more than half of the 300 properties sold in Waikato region in 2015 were to Aucklanders while a quarter of the houses sold in Tauranga were to those moving down from the big smoke.

This trend has rejuvenated the country’s home renovation market, which according to figures from Statistics New Zealand (2014), is now a booming $1.5 billion dollar industry.

The effect of Aucklanders moving to the regions is being felt by Kiwi business, The Tile Depot, whose regional stores have been inundated with orders from ex-Aucklanders renovating their new homes.

“Our regional stores are experiencing a spike in sales due to Aucklanders moving to the regions and immediately delving in to renovations. Sales from home renovations are outweighing new builds for us at the moment," says Mike Syddall, The Tile Depot General Manager.

The business has had to relocate 4 of their regional stores to larger premises over the last 2 years in order to meet demand.

“The growth has been so rapid that we’ve had to relocate our Tauranga, Whangarei, New Plymouth and Hamilton stores to larger premises. The Whangarei and Hamilton stores in particular have now doubled in size,” says Mike Syddall, General Manager, The Tile Depot.

Recent figures from realestate.co.nz also show Aucklanders are looking further afield with the number of Aucklanders looking for homes in the Hawke’s Bay, Waikato, Bay of Plenty regions reaching an all-time high in 2014.

ENDS

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