the wider Tauranga area most popular city, in front of both Wellington and Christchurch.

The rest of the moves were spread out across Rotorua, Katikati, Waihi Beach and a handful in Whakatane.

MovingPros co-founder Nate Whitaker said 60 per cent of the site's inquiries were from Aucklanders.

However, Mr Whitaker said he was expecting house price rises in the Tauranga area to stem the flow and was expecting interest to increase in the surrounding areas.

Crown Relocation spokesman Stephen Lynch said about 10 per cent of their domestic enquiries would be going from Auckland to the Bay.

However, Mr Lynch said he thought this growth may already be beginning to taper, possibly as a result of house prices.

"I don't have any evidence for it, but I think it's actually starting to tail offslightly this year at the moment ... [The Bay] is still fairly strong but I don't think it's as much as it was this time last year."

He said outside of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, the Bay was the most popular destination nationwide.

Conroy Relocations managing director David Conroy, which operates in both New Zealand and Australia, said the once strongly flowing Tasman tide had turned back towards Aotearoa.

He said company had moved a "huge number" of people to Tauranga from across the Tasman, many of whom were "more established" older Kiwis returning home.

The company said it had less demand for Bay relocations compared to the 10 or 20 per cent of MovingPros and Crown.

Managing director of 1st Call Recruitment Phill van Syp said he had seen a noticeable increase