Friday, March 29, 2024

Rural market steady to strong

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Rural real estate activity has been steady and in some cases strong despite the traditional summer slowdown, Real Estate Institute rural spokesman Brian Peacocke says. “The buoyancy of the spring was replaced by the traditional summer holiday season when, as expected, sales activity slowed considerably for several weeks.
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“Sales volumes for the three months ended January 31 reflect the above, with January figures reduced dramatically, in excess of 50% in some categories, compared to very strong sales figures recently achieved, particularly in December,” he said.

However, there was a surprisingly strong market in Northland with continuity coming from first-farm buyers, steady activity in Waikato with values fully firm and good sales activity with grazing properties but heavily reduced sales volumes of dairy farms. 

An ongoing and very strong market for kiwifruit properties in Bay of Plenty saw sale prices for Gold and Green orchards close to the record levels of the pre-PSA era.

A quieter market existed in most categories for other North Island regions.

“Holidays, harvesting and the lack of rain have been the dominant factors throughout much of the South Island where values remain firm in what could be described as a quiet market overall,” Peacocke said.

In the three months to the end of January there were 109 fewer farm sales (-19.3%) than for the corresponding period in 2013-14. 

Overall, there were 455 farm sales in the three months to the end of January 2015 compared to 486 farm sales for the three months ended December 2014 (-6.4%) and 564 farm sales for the three months to the end of January 2014.

In all 1811 farms were sold in the year to January 31, 1% more than for the previous January year.

The median price per hectare for all farms sold in the three months to January was $27,997 compared to $22,664 (+23.6%) the previous year.

The median price per hectare fell 2.7% compared to December.

Grazing properties made up 44.2% of sales, dairy 22.2%, finishing 13.2% and horticulture 11.2%.

In the three months the median price for 101 dairy properties was $40,742, compared to $41,227 for 95 properties sold in the three months ended December and $36,509 for the 127 sold in the corresponding period the previous year. The median size was 112ha.

“Holidays, harvesting and the lack of rain have been the dominant factors

BRIAN PEACOCKE

REINZ

In January 15 dairy farms ranging from 52ha in Waikato to 262ha in Northland with a median of 139ha were sold. 

Median production/ha of January’s dairy sales was 1097kg milksolids, the third highest on record.

For 60 finishing farm the median sale was $23,506/ha compared with $24,043 for 60 farms in the three months ended December and $20,720 the previous year for 119 properties. The median size was 58ha.

The median price for 201 grazing farms in the three months was $15,640/ha compared to $16,167 for 219 farms in the December quarter and $13,995 for 238 farms the previous year. The median size was 81ha.

The median price for 51 horticulture units for the three months to January 31 was $205,634/ha compared to $202,308 for 54 properties in the three months to December and $132,474 for 36 properties the previous year. The median size was 6ha.

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