Home › Selling in Farm Cove
Selling a home in Farm Cove
The smallest market of the four and the biggest sections. Forty-nine sales in a year, which is not enough evidence to price a house on its own.
- 01Forty-nine recorded sales all year, the thinnest evidence base of the four
- 02The median fell 11.9%, but a cluster of new builds explains much of that
- 03The biggest sections I work with: a median 682sqm
- 04One street carried a fifth of the year’s sales
It is also the smallest, and that matters more than any other fact on this page. Forty-nine recorded sales in twelve months is roughly one a week. A suburb median built on forty-nine sales moves when four or five unusual homes change hands, so the figures below are context rather than evidence. In Farm Cove I price off the comparables on your street and the ones I have physically walked through, and I will tell you which of the two I am leaning on.
-
Sample size
Forty-nine sales is context, not proof. I will tell you which comparables I actually trust.
The median here fell 11.9% on the year before, from $1,436,000 to $1,265,000, the steepest fall of the four suburbs, and the least reliable number on this page. Forty-three sales the year before, forty-nine this year: move five expensive homes from one twelve-month window into the other and the whole figure shifts. I will quote it because it is what the record says, and I will tell you plainly not to price your house on it.
-
The new-build cluster
Ten of forty-nine sales were on Fratley Avenue, and most of them were new terraces.
4A, 4B, 4C and 4D Fratley Avenue sold between $1,050,000 and $1,122,500, with 2/2 and 2/13 alongside them. Those are real sales at real prices for new four-bedroom homes on 144 to 239sqm. They are not comparables for an original house on 690sqm, and they are a large part of why the suburb median came down this year. Any appraisal that leans on a street report without separating the two will hand you the wrong number with a straight face.
-
Land, and the estuary edge
682sqm is the median section, and on the water-facing streets the outlook is the price.
This is the biggest land I sell, and on a large flat section a buyer may be pricing what can be built rather than what is there. On the estuary-facing streets the outlook does the work instead, and “water views” is not a claim. Which rooms, how much, and at what tide is. For any low-lying or water-adjacent site I check the council flood and coastal hazard information for your address before we market it and put what the map shows in writing. Reading what the rules mean is a planning consultant's job, and I will tell you when you need one.
-
Method of sale
A third of sales went to auction, the highest share of the four alongside Half Moon Bay.
Thirty-three percent went under the hammer. In a suburb with this little recent evidence that is a coherent argument rather than a default one: when nobody can price a home by comparison, an auction lets the market do it on the day. It applies most to unusual homes: a large section, a strong outlook, a renovation nobody can value. For a standard four-bedroom with three good comparables down the road it adds cost and pressure without adding competition, and I will say so.
-
Title
I order the title before we list, not after an offer goes conditional.
Eighteen percent of sales here were cross-lease, the highest share of the four suburbs. If a previous owner added a deck, a conservatory, a carport or a garage without updating the flats plan, the title no longer matches the building, and the buyer's lawyer will find it about four days before the deadline. On a large or water-adjacent site the title review also picks up easements, right-of-ways and covenants that are worth knowing about in week one.
Recorded sales in twelve months
About one a week, the thinnest of the four
Median section
The largest land of the four suburbs
Sold at auction
Level with Half Moon Bay, the highest of the four
Median days to sell
Two days quicker than Bucklands Beach
The streets that traded most
- Fratley Avenue 10
- Rapallo Place 6
- Raddock Place 6
- Davita Place 5
- Galloway Crescent 5
- Fisher Parade 4
Fratley Avenue alone was a fifth of the year, and most of that was one new development selling unit by unit. In a market this small a single street can move the suburb median without telling you anything about your house.
What sold
- Standalone houses 98%
- Units 2%
Twelve percent were brand-new builds and the median sale took 46 days. Sales landed at a median of 94% of rating valuation. On forty-nine sales, treat each of those as a direction rather than a number.
Families paying for land
Fifty-six percent of what sold had four bedrooms or more, on the largest sections of the four suburbs. They are trading up out of Pakuranga and Highland Park and buying a flat lawn they do not intend to leave.
Estuary and boat buyers
Concentrated on Fisher Parade and the streets running off it. They are buying the outlook and the water access, and they are the reason the top quarter of this market runs past $1,660,000.
Downsizers into the new terraces
The demand behind the Fratley Avenue builds. Unhurried, highly sensitive to presentation, and the reason a new four-bedroom on 180sqm can fetch close to what an original house on 690sqm does.
Is the market here really down 12%?
The recorded median is: $1,265,000 against $1,436,000 the year before. Whether your house is down 12% is a different question, and on forty-nine sales the honest answer is that the suburb figure cannot tell you. Part of the fall is real market movement. The other three suburbs I work fell between nothing and 5%. Part of it is mix: ten of this year's forty-nine sales were on one street, and most of those were new terraces around $1.1M, which pulls a median down without anything happening to the value of an original home. I separate the two at the appraisal and show you the working rather than the conclusion.
How do you price a house when there are only forty-nine sales a year?
By widening carefully rather than widening blindly. I start with the comparables inside Farm Cove that match your land, your build era and your outlook, and there are usually only three or four of them. Then I look across the boundary into Half Moon Bay and Sunnyhills for the same product on similar land, of a similar era and in a similar position, and I tell you which sales came from where and how much weight each one is carrying. What I do not do is average forty-nine unlike sales and present the result as your price.
Should I go to auction?
Thirty-three percent of sales here went under the hammer, the highest share of the four suburbs alongside Half Moon Bay, and in a market this thin that makes sense. When there are only three or four genuine comparables, an auction lets competing buyers set the number instead of you guessing it. It suits a large section, a genuine outlook or a home nobody can price by comparison. It suits a standard four-bedroom with three good recent comparables far less, and in that case a priced campaign costs you less and carries less risk. I will tell you which one you have.
The appraisal promise
Thirty minutes,
at your place
Thirty to forty minutes at your place in Farm Cove. A price range, the three to five comparable sales it's built on, including the one that hurts, and including the ones I had to look outside the suburb to find. Written up and in your inbox the same night, whether you list with me or not.
I take six listings at a time, so if I say yes to your house you get all of me.
Also selling in Pakuranga, Howick and Highland Park. All seven suburbs in one table →