Mid-Northland Farm Offers Exciting Options

Investors and farmers will find plenty of appeal in a mid-Northland property near the Pacific coast that can offer the best of farming returns and lifestyle opportunities only an hour from Auckland.

Located on Gibbons Road about 15 minutes south-west of Mangawhai coastal village, the 220ha property is currently milking 440 cows and is one of the last remaining dairy units in the Mangawhai district.

Last season the farm produced 126,000kg milksolids, with its best year managing 131,000kg from the property that features largely easier country throughout.

Bayleys salesperson Catherine Stewart says a savvy buyer would be able to find a range of opportunities within the property’s boundaries, including the opportunity to ramp up the farm’s dairy production, capitalising on its good infrastructure that includes a 30-bail rotary dairy shed.

The property’s scale would also allow room to continue running dairy replacements, and benefit from good growth by running some dry-stock for the store market over winter.

“And for anyone considering a land banking opportunity, the farm provides a viable income, while including six separate titles within the boundary. The appeal for future development as this part of Northland continues to grow, is definitely an option,” she says.

As a working farm, the property has a solid infrastructure base.

The 30-bail rotary dairy is supported with a good raceway system around the farm, 71 paddocks with a high standard of fencing and sound four bay tractor shed and barns. Water supply, a vital factor for Northland, is secured via a high-quality spring, sourced off adjoining DoC land.

Full feed pad facilities help ease the risk of winter pugging, and provide the opportunity to intensify operations further if desired with supplement inputs.

The farm includes two comfortable farm-houses, with the main house including three bedrooms, open plan living area and a double garage in a landscaped garden area. The second home suitable for a farm manager has four bedrooms extensive decking and a double garage.

Vendor Carlton Smyth has owned the farm for 26 years, with daily operations managed by farm staff for the past seven years as Carlton built up Smyth Transport while his wife Michelle built up her landscaping business at Maungataroto.

“Now those two businesses are doing well, we want to try and take things a bit easier, and it’s a good time to go, with Fonterra’s payout looking good, and the farm in good shape,” he says.

He says the farm would be classed as “winter wet but summer green”, hanging on with grass supply well after other properties have run out in particularly dry years. The couple have invested back into improving the farm’s drainage over the years, with extensive drainage coil installed in the lower lying valleys and dips. They have also benefitted having two sound limestone quarries on the property, helping ensure good quality, easy walking races for the dairy herd.

“As a property its location is also a key point, and I suspect there will be a wide range of buyers interested in it, whether as investors with one eye on future land values, but from farmers too, wanting a farm with some scale in this part of Northland - there are not many left.”

The farm is coming on the market as the Northland rural area enjoys a surge in interest from investors, life-stylers and farmers. Farm sales in the Kaipara district are up 67% in last year, while the Whangarei area has sales up 23%.

With its central mid-Northern location, the Gibbons road property is well placed to serve both a growing family and an active lifestyle. Nearby schools include Kaiwaka primary school and Otamatea High at the foot of the Brynderwyns, both within comfortable reach.

The rapid growth in the Mangawhai Heads township has prompted plans to develop a new township, Mangawhai Central, to allow for the surge in population expected in coming years.

“We are enjoying a surge of interest from all parts of the market. Life-stylers looking to escape the big city, investors with one eye on Auckland’s continuing push north, and farmers who are finding their bankers have come back to the table, keen to discuss lending opportunities,” says Catherine Stewart.

The farm is due to be auctioned on December 1, and Catherine Stewart expects a broad level of interest in a property offering a wide usage choice for buyers, ideal location and well-established income base.

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Auction to be held on December 1.

Click here for more information on the listing.

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