Prime South Auckland crop farm
Ahighly-fertile vegetable cropping block — producing broccoli, onions and pumpkins — has been placed on the market for sale. The gently-sloping 37-hectare property at Patumahoe in the Bombay Hills south of Auckland has a thick layer of nutrient-rich volcanic loam soil which has been sustaining commercial vegetable crops annually for 60-years.
A comprehensive catalogue of horticultural infrastructure buildings linked to the property are also featured in the package, including:
● A 63sq m refrigerated chilling plant
● A 1156sq m galvanised iron packing shed
● About 323sq m of storage and workshop sheds
● A staff lunchroom and office
● Water bores, pumps and hydrants
● Three dwellings used by the owner and for potential staff quarters and
● Two portacom cabins Patumahoe is in the heart of Counties’ vegetable cropping belt along the Bombay Hills, in a region that produces most of Auckland’s vegetable crops.
The predominantly rectangularshaped block up for sale has about
500m of frontage on Hunter Rd, with a further 350m of frontage on Gallager Rd. It also has right-of-way access off Hart Rd.
The land is zoned rural production and subdivided into 15 plots.
The freehold property and buildings are being marketed for sale by tender, being managed by Bayleys Pukekohe, with tenders closing at
4pm on May 15.
Bayleys Pukekohe salespeople Ben Jameson, Shona Brown and Shane Snijder say the farm’s root vegetable produce supplies local and international markets.
“This is a stereotypical established owner/operator horticultural operation which has been developed over a long period of time, and is now offered for sale in a ‘turn-key’ state ready to take on production for next year’s onion and pumpkin crops,” Jameson says.
“The rich soil type around Patumahoe is enhanced by the favourable environment and climate of the area — where 756mm of rainfall was recorded in the 12 months to the end of February 2018, and the average temperature over the same period was 17C.
“The land has been meticulously fertilised and nutrient-enriched over the past six decades to ensure its ongoing high productivity levels.
“The current crops of broccoli, onions and pumpkin are complimentary in terms of harvesting months — ensuring efficient use of the cool store and packing shed assets, labour and equipment.”
Broccoli is at its peak over later autumn into early winter, while onions and pumpkins are harvested The property is a substantial highlyfertile vegetable cropping block near Patumahoe. throughout summer and autumn.
Jameson says there is the potential to grow alternative crops on the land — ranging from cauliflower and lettuce, through to carrots and potatoes.
The block’s flat topography means glasshouses could be built on the site for year-round production, or for growing alternative types of produce.
Irrigation for the horticultural block at 134/138 and 170 Hunter Rd comes from a six-inch bore which has resource consent to draw up to 24,000 cubic metres of water a year from the Kaawa Aquifer. into
The property sits between 72-82m above sea level.
Brown says that in addition to the land and buildings, the farm’s plant and machinery inventory — including a fleet of tractors, trailers, vegetable seeders and rippers, ploughs and hoes — is also separately available to purchase.
The three residential dwellings on the property include a two-bedroom cottage, a three-bedroom weatherboard and wood dwelling, and a fourbedroom house.
“The configuration of dwellings allows for occupation by an extended family looking to take on the horticultural activities, or for housing managers and staff from an absentee owner perspective,” Brown says.
The Patumahoe vegetable block comes on to the market hot on the heels of a Government report which has identified the on-going conversion of Auckland’s productive horticultural land into residential lifestyle blocks.
The report, Our Land 2018, compiled by the Ministry for the Environment — highlights that more than 35 per cent of Auckland’s most fertile soil has been consumed by lifestyle blocks. Prevalent among the change in land-use has been property around Pukekohe, which has seen the number of residential lifestyle blocks increase by some 58 per cent since the late 1990s.
“With residential developments encroaching on horticultural land, combined with Auckland’s increasing population and its parallel growing demand for food, this has seen the value of productive land in and around Pukekohe and the Bombay Hills increasing steadily over the past decade,” Jameson says.