Top rural properties in Victoria and Riverina in high demand

MILLIONS of dollars of rural property has changed hands in the past six month in Victoria and the Riverina.

Foxlow, the Bungendore farm on the Molonglo River, outside Canberra has been sold for $15 million.

MILLIONS of dollars of rural property has changed hands in the past six months in Victoria and the Riverina.

Nine of the dozen trophy properties profiled in The Weekly Times this year have sold, with the 7519ha Foxlow at Bungendore topping the tally at $15 million.

Other top sales included Blackwood at Penshurst — a 2400ha farm with a bluestone house, which is believed to have sold for about $14 million, and Lal Lal Estate at Yendon, which sold in an off-market transaction earlier this year.

Agents have described the market as slow but steady.

Cropping country saw strong demand from farmers cashed up after last year’s good harvest.

A 1671ha organic cropping property at Rand, in NSW, sold for $2.75 million.

Two farms in the Wimmera of about 1400ha sold for more than $5 million and a record price of $5829/ha was paid for land at Noradjuha.

Even dairy farms, where sales had stalled in the past two years, showed signs of recovery.

The 1559ha Kauri Coast dairy farm at Woolsthorpe, with a price tag of about $12 million, has been sold for an undisclosed price.

Colac agent Michael Stewart, of Charles Stewart and Co, said while the property market was “not booming” it was ticking along, with good inquiry for most types of farms and the trend was improving.

Inquiry for lifestyle properties had fallen away, he said.

However, the luxury 32ha lifestyle property Musk Farm at Daylesford sold above expectation earlier this month for $2.25 million, and Maranoa, an 89ha lifestyle property at Nagambie, sold for a sum believed to about $3.75 million.

Mr Stewart said the outlook was more positive than 12 months ago.

John Canavan First National agent at Mansfield, Derek Beautyman, agreed, and said while they had not been run off their feet, inquiry had been “healthy”.

An indication of the time taken to close a sale was the 13,274ha Booabula at Wanganella, which went on the market last August and was sold in late April for more than $8 million.

But properties such as the 14,000ha Werai Station at Deniliquin, listed last December at $6.5 million, remain unsold.