Suburb Profile
Ferny Hills is an established, leafy residential suburb in the City of Moreton Bay, about 16 kilometres north-west of the Brisbane CBD. It is part of the Hills District, alongside Arana Hills and Everton Hills, with residential neighbourhoods concentrated in the eastern part of the suburb and extensive bushland to the west.
At Your Property Hound, we purchase regularly in Ferny Hills. We often consider it for buyers looking for a family home because it combines relative affordability, a strong family demographic, established detached housing, and good access to public transport. It can offer an attractive alternative to more expensive Brisbane City Council suburbs immediately to the south, while remaining within reasonable commuting distance of the CBD.
The suburb is particularly well suited to buyers who value green space, family-sized homes and a quieter suburban environment. However, Ferny Hills is also quite hilly, and individual properties can vary considerably in slope, retaining walls, drainage, bushfire exposure, and accessibility.
Ferny Hills covers approximately 10.2 square kilometres and is bordered by Bunya, Arana Hills, Ferny Grove, Keperra, Upper Kedron, Camp Mountain and Samford Valley. The western part of the suburb incorporates substantial areas of Samford Conservation Park (624 Ha), while most residential development is concentrated towards the east.
Residential development accelerated from around the 1960s as Brisbane’s northern suburbs expanded outwards. Today, Ferny Hills is predominantly an established detached-housing suburb, with many homes dating from the 1960s through to the 1980s alongside renovated and more recently constructed properties.
If your search extends further north, our guide to buying in the Moreton Bay region provides an overview of property prices, suburbs, infrastructure and potential risks.
Ferny Hills is an area Your Property Hound regularly buys in, particularly for clients seeking a family home with a little more space without moving too far from Brisbane.
Its combination of relative affordability, established family housing, extensive green space and access to Ferny Grove railway station can make it a compelling alternative to more expensive suburbs closer to the CBD.
However, individual properties can differ substantially. Slope, retaining walls, drainage, road exposure, bushfire considerations, renovation quality and land usability can all affect both value and future resale appeal.
Your Property Hound can help buyers identify suitable Ferny Hills properties, analyse comparable sales, establish a realistic appraisal range, investigate property-specific risks and negotiate the purchase.
The 2021 population of 8,726 is broadly unchanged from 8,739 in 2016. Owner occupation is particularly high at 83.7%, compared with 83.6% in 2016.
Ferny Hills has a strong family demographic. Couples with children account for 49.1% of households, compared with 42% across the broader Moreton Bay area. Couples without children represent 36%, while single-parent households account for 13.8%.
The largest age group is residents aged 40–49 at 16.5%, followed by those aged 10–19 at 14.1%. Children aged 0–9 account for a further 13%, reinforcing the suburb’s family-oriented character.
Ferny Hills also has a relatively professional workforce. Professionals account for 30% of employed residents, compared with 17.9% across Moreton Bay, while managers represent another 13.2%.
Ferny Hills itself has smaller local shopping and service precincts on Ferny Way, while a broader range of everyday shopping is available nearby in Arana Hills.
The Arana Hills and Everton Hills precincts provide supermarkets, cafés, restaurants, medical services and other everyday facilities. Larger retail centres are available at Brookside Shopping Centre in Mitchelton and further east at Westfield Chermside.
One advantage of Ferny Hills is that it retains a predominantly residential and bushland character while still being reasonably close to established shopping and services.
The nearby Samford Valley and Samford Village also offer a different recreational option, with cafés, restaurants and rural surroundings accessible via Samford Road.
Public transport access is an important part of Ferny Hills’ appeal. While there is no railway station within the suburb itself, nearby Ferny Grove railway station is the terminus of the Ferny Grove line and is 12 stops from the Brisbane CBD. For commuters, proximity to Ferny Grove station can therefore be an important consideration when choosing a property.
Bus stops are distributed throughout Ferny Hills, providing additional public transport options, while Samford Road and Ferny Way are the main road connections towards Brisbane and surrounding suburbs.
Commuting times by road can vary during peak periods, particularly along the major transport corridors. Buyers should also consider traffic and road noise when assessing properties on or close to busier routes such as Patricks Road, Ferny Way and Samford Road.
Ferny Hills has established local primary schools, including Ferny Hills State School and Patricks Road State School.
Secondary schooling options are available in surrounding suburbs, including Ferny Grove, and a range of private schools are available across Brisbane’s north-west and the broader Moreton Bay area.
For families purchasing specifically for access to a particular state school, the current school catchment should always be confirmed for the individual property address before purchasing.
Green space is one of Ferny Hills’ defining characteristics.
35 parks cover approximately 54.2% of the suburb’s total area. This unusually high proportion reflects the substantial bushland and conservation areas incorporated within the suburb.
The western part of Ferny Hills extends into Samford Conservation Park, which provides opportunities for walking, mountain biking and horse riding. The Ferny Grove to Samford Rail Trail is another nearby recreational asset.
Local parks include George Willmore Park, which has a playground, cricket nets, basketball facilities, barbecue areas and a large open field, while Wahminda Park combines bushland walking trails with tennis courts, a playground and picnic facilities.
Thomsett Park provides further green space beside Kedron Brook, including a playground and dog off-leash area.
The combination of bushland, local parks, and established residential streets significantly contributes to Ferny Hills’ appeal to families.
Ferny Hills is primarily residential and has no major employment precinct.
Many residents commute to employment elsewhere across Brisbane and Moreton Bay, including the Brisbane CBD and established commercial and industrial areas across Brisbane’s north.
Ferny Hills does not have a simple division between “good” and “bad” pockets. Property appeal is influenced more by street position, elevation, slope, outlook, land usability, and proximity to transport and amenities.
Quiet residential streets with usable blocks and well-maintained or renovated family homes generally have broad owner-occupier appeal. Properties with convenient access to schools, parks and Ferny Grove railway station can also attract stronger competition.
The suburb’s hilly terrain creates greater variation between individual properties than median statistics suggest. Buyers should carefully assess slope, retaining walls, drainage, driveway gradients and usable yard space. Some properties close to bushland may also warrant investigation of bushfire overlays and vegetation constraints.
Road exposure is another consideration, particularly along Patricks Road, Ferny Way and Samford Road.
The vast majority (91.05%) of properties in Ferny Hills are free-standing houses.
The suburb is particularly well known for its 70s and 80s homes; generally, they are chamferboard or brick. A typical block size for the area is anywhere from 600-800sqm.
Houses have an average ownership period of 13.5 years, reinforcing the suburb’s relatively tightly held nature.
Cotality recorded a median house price of $1,177,167 in August 2026.
View 239 Patricks Road on realestate.com.au
Interestingly, this sale was almost exactly in line with Cotality’s August 2026 suburb median house value.
The median unit price in Ferny Hills is: $850,000 (August 2026).
There are no sufficiently recent unit or townhouse sales to provide a useful current purchase example.
This is consistent with the small size and low turnover of the attached-housing market. Cotality recorded just four unit sales over the rolling 12 months to June 2026, compared with 110 house sales.
For this reason, buyers should be cautious about relying on Ferny Hills’ unit median or reported unit growth rate when appraising an individual townhouse or unit.
Ferny Hills has recorded substantially longer-term house-price growth. Cotality recorded a median house value of $1,177,167 in August 2026, representing annual growth of 8.4%.
Over the longer term, house values have increased by about 102% since August 2020, about 44% since August 2023, and about 22% since August 2024.
The monthly series shows the median house value reaching approximately $1.23 million in April 2026 before easing through the following months to approximately $1.18 million in August. Cotality recorded 110 house sales over the rolling 12 months to June 2026.
Cotality also recorded an August 2026 median unit value of $851,863 and annual growth of 21.3%. However, this figure should be treated with considerable caution. Only four unit sales occurred over the rolling 12 months to June 2026, so changes in the small number of properties transacting can have an outsized effect on the median.
The reported 21.3% unit growth rate should therefore not be interpreted as evidence that a typical Ferny Hills unit or townhouse increased by that amount.
Insufficient data points make it difficult to report equivalent supply-and-demand measures for units, reflecting the small size and low turnover of Ferny Hills’ attached-housing market.
Statistics are accurate for August 2026.
The combination of a 23-day average selling period and just 0.84% of houses listed for sale points to relatively tight supply and reasonably quick turnover. However, the reported 7% average vendor discount also demonstrates why buyers should still analyse each property on its merits rather than assuming limited stock automatically justifies the asking price.
Ferny Hills offers a combination that is increasingly hard to find within reasonable reach of central Brisbane: established family homes, high owner occupancy, extensive green space and convenient access to rail transport, all at a price point generally below that of many comparable Brisbane City Council suburbs closer to the CBD.
That combination is one reason Your Property Hound has purchased many properties in Ferny Hills for clients.
The suburb is not entirely uniform, however. A seemingly attractive home can be compromised by a steep block, a difficult driveway, retaining-wall issues, busy-road exposure or poor-quality renovations. Conversely, a well-positioned property with a usable block, a quiet street and good access to transport can have strong long-term owner-occupier appeal.
For buyers considering Ferny Hills, property selection and due diligence matter just as much as choosing the suburb itself.
Find a better property at an even better price. Leave your property buying journey with our buyer’s agents – we’re Your Property Hounds.
