Rural real estate values: Search the database of 7363 properties
A database of all Victorian rural properties sold last year, listed by shire, shows where the cheapest and most expensive land can be found. ACCESS HERE
WHAT’S your farm worth?
Whether it’s a lifestyle block or broadacre cropping land, The Weekly Times has compiled a searchable database of all 7363 rural properties sold in Victoria last year, based on the Victorian Valuer-General’s most recent sales reports.
Once you’ve searched the database by shire, or lifestyle, vineyard, beef, sheep, cropping or other property type, simply click any of the headers — Shire, Property type, Number of sales, Average price, Average block size (hectares) or Average price per hectare — to re-rank them from lowest to highest or visa-versa.
Leave the search window blank to return to the list, ranked by shire.
What the report shows is cropping country around the Grampians is worth far more than its weight in golden canola, Mornington Peninsula beef properties are only for high-flyers and the state’s most expensive dairy country sits in the lush pastures of Baw Baw Shire.
Winegrape properties were also in high demand in the state’s north, with table-grape growers snapping up more than 45 Sunraysia vineyards, for an average $24,890 a hectare, while another 10 were sold in the Swan Hill Shire.
In the cropping zones the cheapest land was to be found in the Gannawarra, Loddon and West Wimmera Shires, which sold for $3600-$3800/ha last year, whereas the 26 properties sold across the Mildura Shires Mallee country beat them all, averaging $4379/ha.
CBRE Agribusiness director Shane McIntyre said the value of more marginal cropping country had picked up in a wave of recent demand, driven by “low interest rates, improved trading conditions” and “the relative consistency” of Victoria’s seasons.
In the Northern Grampians the price of 14 cropping properties averaged $10,286/ha, while in the Southern Grampians much larger properties average almost $7000/ha.
Both shires’ financials show the combined value of their 5200 rural properties rose 22 per cent from 2019-20 to 2020-21, from $3.85 billion to $4.71 billion.
In dairying the ongoing rationalisation of farms was evident in the high numbers sold in Victoria’s southwest, where 60 properties changed hands in the Corangamite region for an average $13,192/ha and another 38 in the Moyne shire for $19,504/ha.
In Gippsland 19 dairy farms in Wellington Shire averaged $17,868/ha, while another 20 in Baw Baw Shire averaged $38,759/ha, which Mr McIntyre said had a lot to do with the region’s proximity to Melbourne as much as its reliable rainfall.
Beef, sheep and other grazing country was far more difficult beast to analyse, given the impact of lifestyle demand from Melbourne, with nine “farms” averaging 27ha selling for an eye-watering $195,469/ha.
But beyond the lifestyle fringe, commercial beef properties at Benalla, averaging 69ha, sold for $13,765/ha, while 22 sold in the Glenelg Shire for $12,914/ha.
In the West Wimmera 15 sheep properties, averaging 171ha, sold for $7940/ha, while another 22 smaller blocks sold in Glenelg Shire for an average $14,210.
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