Laen, Kamarooka and Charlton cropping farms sold to local buyers for millions combined

Local buyers desperate to secure more land have snapped up a suite of Victorian cropping properties at Laen, Kamarooka and Charlton.

There has been a flurry of activity late in the Autumn selling season, with three cropping farms in north central Victoria being snapped up by buyers desperate to secure more land.

Driscoll Douglas East Rural Real Estate agent Brett Douglas said a number of farms in the region had recently been sold in off-market deals due to current demand levels.

“Other parcels of land sold around the area have been sold through private treaty, farmer-to-farmer and have not gone to market,” he said.

“There are no bargains anymore. People are willing to pay good money for good farmland and the appetite for that farmland is immense.”

The Bryans (815ha) and Burchells (159ha) lots of the Laen cropping portfolio have been sold for while the Adams (355ha) block is still owned by the vendor.

Among the recent sales was two lots, totalling 964ha, of the 1328ha Laen cropping portfolio sold to multiple local buyers in a top-dollar deal.

The Bryans (815ha) and Burchells (159ha) properties were sold while the vendor, a Western District farming family, made a business decision not to sell the remaining Adams (355ha) block.

Colliers’ James Beer and Duncan McCulloch and Driscoll Douglas East Rural Real Estate’s Brett Douglas listed the aggregation for sale with a price guide of at least $13,592 per ha ($5500 per acre) earlier this year.

It is understood the sale result was around the expected value given the current rural property market, meaning the Bryans and Burchells fetched about $13m combined.

The 130ha Soulsbys Road farm, at Buckrabanyule was sold to strong demand recently.

Two hours east of Laen, a 265ha cropping operation has sold for the first time in 100 years for an undisclosed sum.

The Jensen family sold their farm at 1291 Elmore-Raywood Rd, Kamarooka to what The Weekly Times understands was spirited competition.

Meanwhile, a 130ha high-quality cropping farm at Buckrabanyule, 10 minutes east of Charlton, has also sold to strong demand.

In the past 12 months farmland values in Victoria’s northern region recorded a 25.4 per cent increase, while farmland values in northwest Victoria grew by 16.3 per cent according to the Rural Bank Australian Farmland Values 2022 report.