Confidence is returning to the farmland sector with buyers “rushing to get deals done before Christmas” – according to one of the country’s top rural agents – after sales volumes fell to a record low in the first half of 2024 and values flat-lined.

Having peaked in 2021 amid a boom in commodity prices and low interest rates, the number of farmland transactions fell 18.7 per cent to a record low of 2966 between January and June, according to Rural Bank’s latest Australian Farmland Values Report.