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Selling a home in Sunnyhills
The only one of the four suburbs where the median held, the fastest sales, and the biggest sections. Also the one where a single development can distort your street's evidence.
- 01The median held, up 0.2% while the other three fell between 4 and 12 percent
- 0235 median days to sell, thirteen days quicker than Bucklands Beach
- 03Sales landed level with rating valuation, the strongest of the four
- 04One development accounted for 15 of 106 sales, which bends the comparables
It is also the one suburb of the four that did not go backwards this year. One hundred and six recorded sales against ninety-four the year before, at a median of $1,202,500 against $1,200,000. Flat, while the other three fell between 4 and 12 percent. More homes changed hands here, and they changed hands faster than anywhere else I sell.
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This year's evidence
Last year's comparables still stand up here, which is not true next door.
The median moved 0.2% and volume went up, from 94 sales to 106. That has two practical consequences. Pricing off twelve-month-old evidence is defensible in Sunnyhills in a way it is not in Farm Cove, where the median fell 11.9%. And sales landed at a median of 100% of rating valuation, the strongest of the four suburbs. Bucklands Beach ran at 92%. That does not make your rating valuation your price. It means the gap between the two is narrower here than anywhere else nearby, so a buyer quoting your CV at you is on firmer ground and needs answering with comparables rather than indignation.
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Land and what can be done with it
Some of your buyers are pricing your section, not your house.
643sqm is the median section here, and much of the suburb sits on flat, regular land. A builder pricing development potential and a family pricing a home will arrive at different numbers on the same property, and a campaign that only speaks to one of them leaves money behind. Which of the two your section actually suits comes down to shape, slope, access and what the zone allows. I work that out before we set a price, and I will tell you honestly when the answer is that your site is a home and nothing more.
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The development clusters
Fifteen of the year’s 106 sales were on one street, and most of them were lots in one new development.
Imatra Place carried fifteen sales, largely lots in a single new build: 1/16 through 4/16 and 16A through 16E, clustered between $1,050,000 and $1,200,000. Meadway shows the same pattern at 13A through 13E. Pull a street report on those addresses and you get a tight band of new-build prices that says almost nothing about an original four-bedroom on 660sqm. This is the most common way a Sunnyhills appraisal goes wrong, and it usually goes wrong low.
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School zones
Buyers arrive having already checked the zone. I quote it exactly or not at all.
Sunnyhills is known for its schools and that is part of why family buyers pay for land here. I confirm the current zone for your address against the Ministry of Education's zone maps and quote it exactly rather than describing it loosely. Zones get redrawn, and a claim that was true two years ago is not evidence. It is a risk in your marketing.
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Title
I order the title before we list, not after an offer goes conditional.
Fourteen percent of sales here were cross-lease, the lowest share of the four suburbs, but on a 1970s street the odds are not evenly spread. 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 flat section the title review also picks up easements and covenants that matter to the builders bidding on it.
Median sale price
Up 0.2%, the only one of the four that held
Median days to sell
The fastest of the four, by thirteen days
Sale price vs rating valuation
The strongest of the four suburbs
Had four bedrooms or more
Family-sized stock on family-sized sections
The streets that traded most
- Imatra Place 15
- Luton Avenue 13
- Meadway 11
- Glenmore Road 11
- The Boulevard 7
- Hedge Row 6
Imatra Place and Meadway together carried a quarter of the year, and much of that was two developments selling lots one after another. Those are real sales, but they are not comparables for an original house, which is why I read the street rather than the count.
What sold
- Standalone houses 88%
- Units 9%
- Townhouses 2%
- Home and income 1%
Only twelve percent were brand-new builds and the median sale took 35 days. Sales landed at a median of 100% of rating valuation, the highest of the four suburbs.
Families trading up for land
Sixty-two percent of what sold had four bedrooms or more, on a median 643sqm. They are coming off smaller sections nearby and paying for a flat lawn, a school run that works and a house they will not have to move out of again.
Builders and developers
Pricing your section rather than your kitchen. On a flat, regular site they can be the strongest bidder in the room; on a sloping or awkward one they will not turn up at all. Knowing which applies to you is most of the pricing decision.
Locals moving within the suburb
The quietest group and often the quickest. They know the streets, they have usually watched two or three houses sell, and they are a large part of why a well-priced Sunnyhills home sells in five weeks rather than eight.
Everyone says the market is down. Why is Sunnyhills flat?
It is flat on the record: a median of $1,202,500 against $1,200,000 the year before, with volume up from 94 sales to 106. I do not have a tidy explanation for that and I will not invent one. A hundred and six sales is enough to describe a suburb and not enough to explain it. What is fair to say is that the stock here is consistent, the sections are large, and demand for four-bedroom family homes on flat land held up better this year than demand for smaller or coastal stock. What it means for you is practical: last year's comparables are still usable here, and that is not true in three of the four suburbs I work.
Five new townhouses on my street sold for less than my house is worth. Do they count?
They count as evidence of what a new townhouse sells for. They are not evidence of what your house is worth. On Imatra Place fifteen sales went through in twelve months and most were lots in one development, clustered between $1,050,000 and $1,200,000 on sections a third the size of an original one. A street report that averages those against your four-bedroom on 660sqm will give you a number that is too low and an explanation that sounds convincing. At the appraisal I show you which comparables I used, which I set aside, and why.
Should I go to auction?
Twenty-three percent of sales here went under the hammer, less than Half Moon Bay or Farm Cove, more than most people expect. Auction earns its place when a section's development value is genuinely uncertain, because it puts a builder and a family in the same room on the same day and lets them argue it out. For a straightforward four-bedroom on a straightforward street, in a suburb where the median sale takes 35 days, a priced campaign usually does the job with less cost and less pressure. I will tell you which one your house is rather than sell you the campaign that pays better.
The appraisal promise
Thirty minutes,
at your place
Thirty to forty minutes at your place in Sunnyhills. A price range, the three to five comparable sales it's built on, including the one that hurts, and a straight answer on whether your section is worth more to a builder than to a family. 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.
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