How a CMA Actually Works
A Comparative Market Analysis is the backbone of any honest appraisal. Here's what actually goes into one, and why it's not the same thing as your council valuation.
What CMA stands for
CMA is short for Comparative Market Analysis. It's the process an agent uses to work out a realistic price range for a property by comparing it against similar homes that have actually sold nearby, recently. It's the evidence behind an appraisal figure, not just a guess dressed up in a nice folder.
What actually goes into one
- Recent comparable sales: similar bedroom count, land size, condition, and location, sold within roughly the last 6–12 months. The closer the match, the more useful the comparison.
- Active listings: what else is currently on the market in the same bracket, since that's the competition a seller is actually up against right now.
- Property-specific factors: condition, renovations, section size, aspect, and anything that would make a specific home sell for more or less than a similar one down the street.
- Days on market trends: whether similar properties are selling quickly or sitting, which says a lot about current buyer demand in that specific pocket of the suburb.
- Sold price versus original asking price: how close recent comparable sales landed to what they were first listed for, which hints at how much room there typically is between an asking figure and the eventual result.
A real example from South Karori
Two properties on Stockden Place, numbers 9 and 11, sold within a day of each other for $965,000 and $970,000. That's about as clean a comparable pair as you'll find: same street, similar timing, similar result. A CMA for a third home on that same street would lean heavily on those two sales specifically, far more than on a sale from a different suburb entirely.
CMA vs. rateable value (RV): they are not the same thing
This is the single most common confusion I run into. Your RV is a council valuation, set periodically for rating (council tax) purposes. It's a broad, mass-appraisal figure, not a real-time reflection of the market.
| CMA | Rateable Value (RV) |
|---|---|
| Based on actual recent sales | Based on a periodic council-wide valuation cycle |
| Reflects current market conditions | Can be a year or more out of date |
| Specific to the property's real features | A broader, less granular estimate |
| Used to guide a realistic asking price | Used for council rates calculations |
It's genuinely common for a property to sell well above or below its RV. That's not a red flag, it's just the difference between a live market read and a periodic government valuation. Recent Karori sales have gone both ways: some settling close to RV, others well beyond it once real buyer demand came into play.
How often should a CMA be updated?
If more than a few months have passed since your last appraisal, it's worth a fresh look, since comparable sales shift, especially on streets with several transactions in a short window. A CMA from a year ago on a fast-moving street can already be out of date.
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