Sellers reap $2bn as farm prices hit record highs
The rural property market catapulted into uncharted territory in the last financial year, with the top 20 sales raking in a whopping $2.1bn.
Australia’s 20 biggest farm deals of 2020-21 have raked in more than $2.1bn.
The rural property market has been catapulted into uncharted territory in the past year, as prices hit record highs off the back of historically low interest rates, improved seasonal conditions, record commodity prices and strong investor demand.
An investigation by The Weekly Times has shown that, of the biggest farmland deals of the financial year, one was worth more than half a billion dollars, six made $100m or more and eight fetched between $50m and $100m.
Heading the list was the sale of NSW cotton giant Auscott, which US-based JG Boswell offloaded to Canada’s PSP Investments for more than $500m.
The deal – one of the biggest in Australian farming history – included 22,000ha of developed irrigation country, more than 143,000 megalitres of water entitlements and five ginning facilities.
PSP was also involved in the 12th biggest deal of 2020-21 – the $55m purchase of a portfolio of Gippsland dairy farms from Gray Wigg through its Aurora Dairies business.
The second-biggest deal of the year was the $357.35m sale of the Vitalharvest business – which owns citrus and berry farms leased to horticulture giant Costa Group – to Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets following a drawn-out bidding war with Roc Partners that forced an increase on its initial offer of $300m.
Rounding out the top three biggest deals was this month’s sale of Stanbroke Pastoral Company’s 438,000ha Miranda Downs Station in Queensland’s Gulf Country to the Hughes family of Hughes Pastoral Company for $180m.
Other major deals in the past 12 month involved UK-based billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Hintze, who paid $100m to the Duddy family for its South Calandoon property at Goondiwindi in Queensland and $36m for the prized Minjah property at Hawkesdale in Victoria’s Western District.
Meanwhile, two landmark Tasmanian farms this week sold for a combined $68m, the biggest rural property sales in the state for decades.
Stonehouse at Lemont in the Southern Midlands sold for $47m on a walk-in-walk-out basis.
The 7500ha sheep and cattle property was sold by Tony Seymour and purchased by Peter Downie, a sixth-generation farmer and developer from Tasmania. The 9300ha Mount Morriston, at Ross, sold for $21m to the Von Bibra and Millar families from Tasmania.
Both Stonehouse and Mount Morriston were sold by Shane McIntyre from CBRE and David Robertson from Agribusiness Services Tasmania.
Mr McIntyre said he regarded Tasmania as a “very attractive alternative to high-rainfall mainland values offering versatile productive enterprises that present less complex irrigation options and consistent returns”.
“Farmland values in Tasmania have enjoyed an average rise in excess of 40 per cent over the last half decade,” he said. “Investors should not ignore this trend.”
The Weekly Times
More Coverage
Aristocratic Vesteys selling out of prestige Adelaide Hills winery
The aristocratic Vestey family, once the second richest in the UK after the royal family, is selling its Australian wine interests including a leading Adelaide Hills winery.
Plotting past prime ministerial purchases
Anthony Albanese and fiancee Jodie Haydon’s $4.3m purchase has copped some heat but history shows the PM is far from the first in the nation’s top office to spend big on property.