Victorian farm prices decrease for the first time since 2015

Farmland values in Victoria have softened slightly — the first decline in a decade as unfavourable seasonal conditions tempered demand last year.

Victorian farmland values have recorded their first decline in a decade as unfavourable seasonal conditions tempered demand across the state last year.

Farmland prices in Victoria decreased by 1 per cent in the 2024 calendar year, recording a median price per hectare of $14,848 according to Bendigo Bank Agribusiness 2024 Farmland Values report.

“The value of farmland in Victoria saw its first decline since 2015 in median price per hectare,” Bendigo Adelaide Bank regional manager agribusiness Wayne Saunders said.

“My region of the Northwest showed a theme of stability, with most big businesses and property owners happy to hold land rather than sell. This translated into softer transaction volume.

“In other regions with favourable seasonal conditions we saw an appetite for sales increase, with some bigger businesses expanding.”

The best performing region of the state was Central Victoria, which saw values grow by 9.9 per cent to a median of $12,480 a hectare.

It was the region’s fourth consecutive year of value growth and followed 45.8 per cent and 7.7 per cent price growth in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Elsewhere in the state, the East Gippsland region recorded a modest year-on-year decline in 2024, falling 3.8 per cent to $12,661 a hectare, while South and West Gippsland recorded a 5.5 per cent decline in 2024 to $29,335 a hectare.

Values in the Goulburn Valley, Mallee and Southwest Victoria also declined by 0.8

per cent to $14,124 a hectare, by 1.2 per cent to $5,769 a hectare and by 4 per cent to $18,403 a hectare respectively.

However, it was in the state’s North East and Wimmera regions where values dropped the most, falling by 21.5 per cent to $16,700 a hectare and 17.6 per cent to $10,180 a hectare.

Nationally, farmland values recorded their eleventh year of growth with the median price per hectare rising by 6.9 per cent to $10,231 a hectare, with a total of 4.7 million hectares of land traded, representing an area larger in size than Denmark.

Across the country the number of farmland sales increased by 5.8 per cent to 7154 with the combined value of transactions totalling $14.9bn.

In NSW the median price per hectare increased by 7.2 per cent to $9459 a hectare, with the Riverina-Murray region rising by 10.9 per cent to $9704 a hectare- the second largest increase in the state for the year.

Tasmania was the nation’s strongest performing state with 14.2 per cent price growth to a median of $23,202 a hectare.

In Queensland values rose to a median of $9870 a hectare, a 12.1 per cent increase, while in Western Australia there was a 9.2 per cent increase to $6799 a hectare.

Despite crippling drought conditions in much of the state, values remained steady in South Australia, rising 1.7 per cent to $7825.

Originally published as Victorian farm prices decrease for the first time since 2015