National farm sales fell to a new record low of 104 in November due to the ongoing global recession, tighter credit criteria, the drop in Fonterra's payout forecast and less available funding, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand said.

The figure of 104 farm sales in November is 64% below the 291 sold in November 2007, and 58% down from the November average for sales over the previous four years.

"While we are very comfortable with the level of prices across the board, there is some concern over the slowing number of sales compared with this time last year," REINZ rural spokesman Peter McDonald said.

"There are, of course, many external factors contributing to people's hesitancy or inability to purchase rural real estate. The global recession, the drop in the expected payout from Fonterra, tougher criteria for loans and availability of funding are all having an impact on the number of sales," McDonald said.

The number of dairy farms sold in November remained the same as in October at 17. Arable farm sales also remained the same with six in each of the two months.

The amount of grazing farms sold fell from 67 to 60, with finishing farm sales halving from 14 to 7.

The median farm sale price for the three months to November 2008 was NZ$1,542,750. This was up slightly from the median price of NZ$1,500,000 in the three months to November 2007, as well as in the three months to October 2008.