Record autumn property season forecast as sales, listings roll on

Half a billion dollars worth of prime Australian farming land has hit the market in the past week — and it has investors frothing at the mouth.

Australia’s rural property market is poised for a record autumn with more than half a billion dollars’ worth of blue-ribbon listings and sales in the past week alone.

Following an extraordinary 2021 for rural farm sales, experts say demand from domestic and international sources will likely continue at unprecedented levels for at least the first six months of this year, defying an expected rise in interest rates.

In the past week:

RURAL land developer goFARM Australia has listed its 6500ha Sandmount Farms aggregation on the Katunga Aquifer in northern Victoria for more than $250m. The offering includes about 50,000 megalitres of water.

CANADA’S PSP Investments, through its Hewitt Cattle Australia business, early last week paid almost $100m for the adjoining Narwietooma, Napperby, Glen Helen and Derwent stations, totalling 1.1 million hectares, in the Northern Territory.

THE Coulton family from Boggabilla in NSW finalised its purchase of the 12,840ha Kalanga Aggregation near Toobeah in Queensland from the North American-based Hancock Agricultural Investment Group for $80m.

KOOBACO – a PSP Investments spin-off of last year’s Webster Limited privatisation – has listed its South Farm, Glenmea and Pevensey properties totalling almost 20,000 hectares near Hay in NSW for more than $70m.

THE Manera family of Macadamia Enterprises near Bundaberg in Queensland listed 344ha of macadamia plantations for more than $70m.

MINING magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest purchased the iconic Balfour Downs aggregation in Western Australia’s Pilbara, which was listed by its Chinese owners last year for up to $40m.

In addition, Wilmot Cattle Company yesterday announced it had purchased the historic 2575ha Paradise Creek Station at Inverell in northern NSW for an undisclosed sum.

The sales and listings follow the market’s extraordinary start to 2022. Major deals already completed this year have included the $120m-plus sale of the Chinese state-owned Shenhua Group aggregation on the NSW Liverpool Plains and the $30m sale of the 2000ha Tuloona Pastoral operation near Harrow in Victoria’s Western District.

Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s sell off of part of her expansive northern Australian portfolio included four stations, totalling 3.26 million hectares, which sold to Viv Oldfield and Donny Costello of Crown Point Pastoral Company, in turn crowning them Australia’s biggest landholders.

Canada's PSP Investments, through its Hewitt Cattle Australia business, last week paid almost $100m for the adjoining Narwietooma, Napperby, Glen Helen and Derwent stations, totaling 1.1 million hectares, in the Northern Territory.

LAWD senior director Danny Thomas said the last quarter of 2021 “bore witness to some extraordinary results, particularly in hot spots like western Victoria and the southern Riverina” and he expected buyer momentum to continue during the first half of this year.

“These results have brought a significant volume of new, high-quality listings to the market,” Mr Thomas said.

“The spectre of rising interest rates has done little to deter sentiment among long-term investors who are buying for the next 20 years, not the next two.”

ANZ Bank agribusiness director Mark Bennett said stable market conditions was the fodder for demand to remain high.

“Overall it has been an incredibly strong period for rural property in Australia with many farms in strong demand,” he said.

“There is a lot of positivity, optimism and margin for growth in agriculture at the moment and that is driving the activity.

“The conditions right now have been seen as great for selling and a lot of people have also seen it as a great time for buying.

“Around two years ago we thought we might have been at the top of the price and yet it has continued to rise since.”

Mr Bennett said the overwhelming demand for Australian property was stemming from its value in producing resources for a growing global middle-class population and thanks to the low cost of money.

“Previously it has been corporate funds or foreign direct investment or super funds which have generated the key capital for such big sales,” he said.

“But now we are seeing a lot of farmer to farmer sales thanks to the strong cash balance and low cost of borrowing money due to low interest rates.”

Other deals of note in the past week have included the $9.9m sale of the Sutcliffe family’s Courtines, Windmere and Baileys properties near Oaklands in NSW which worked out at more than $10,915 a hectare.

Two farms in western Victoria fetched a combined $12m at recent auctions with a 853ha mixed-farming property at Netherby commanding $8.92m and 387ha at Powers Creek, near Edenhope, selling for $3.56 million or $9198 a hectare.