Farm sales fell to their lowest monthly level in July since February, with the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) saying the median price per hectare is now at its lowest level in nearly eight years.
Just 60 farms sold in July compared with 63 in July 2010, and was just over half the111 sold in June this year. Dairy farm sales also almost halved in July to seven from 13 in June, but were down just one from eight in July 2010.
REINZ rural market spokesman Brian Peacocke said the median price per hectare for all farms sold in the three months to July was NZ$14,649, down from NZ$15,568 in the three months to June and NZ$17,901 for the three months to July 2010.
"The median price per hectare is now at its lowest point since September 2003 and continues the downward trend in median prices evident since early 2009," Peacocke said.
Peacocke said there were 301 farm sales in the three months to the end of July compared with 393 sales in the three months to June and 262 sales in the three months to July 2010.
July's 60 sales is the lowest monthly total since 56 farms were sold in February. There were 111 sales in June, 130 in May, 152 in April and 82 in March.
Peacocke said the number of farms sold in the year to July was 957, down three from the number sold in the year ended June, but up from 942 sales in the year to July 2010.
“The drop in farm sales for the three months to July reflects the time of year and the focus of farmers on seasonal workloads,” Peacocke said.
“Farmers are keenly watching events in financial markets and the trend in the New Zealand dollar. The high dollar over the past few weeks is causing some concern, however, the outlook for the currency is difficult to predict and the situation, particularly in respect of the United States remains volatile. Nevertheless, forward enquiry for quality properties remains positive.”
He said all regions bar one recorded a fall in sales during the three months to July, with Southland, Canterbury and Otago, which have been the regions recording the highest sales volumes, recording the biggest number of falls.
The seven dairy farms sold in July went for an average sale value of NZ$27,151 per hectare and NZ$25 per kg of milk solids (MS). The average farm size was 251 hectares with a range of 50 hectares in Northland to 709 hectares in Otago. The average production per hectare across all dairy farms sold in July 2011 was 1,096 kgs of milk solids.
Grazing properties accounted for the largest number of sales with 51.8% share of all sales over the three months to July. Dairy properties accounted for 13.6%, finishing properties 15.9% and horticulture properties 6%.
At 1,367, 19 fewer lifestyle properties were sold in the three months to July than in the three months to June, although this was up 279 from the three months to July 2010. The national median price dropped NZ$7,000 to NZ$453,000 for the three months to July from NZ$460,000 in the three months to June. However, compared with the three months to July 2010, the median price increased by NZ$5,500.
See REINZ's full press release here and its rural market statistics here.
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4 Comments
Turn your attention towards countries where financial leverage is under-used , and compare the prices of houses and farm land there , to NZ .
Much of Asia , Sth. America , former USSR states , Africa have opportunities galore for a Kiwi lad with some commonsense and a small bag of money .
.... My latest venture is to grab an 8 acre rice field , for a princely $NZ 9500 ( yup , that's correct , I didn't miss any zeros ! ) ... some distant relatives are gonna sell it dirt cheap to the government .
Feck the ruddy greedy pigs in power.. . Land belong to the people !
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