Feilding-based farm investment company MyFarm says farm prices have fallen about 15-30% and interest rates have dropped, making it easier to buy farms reports The Manawatu Herald. The investment company has about 23 properties, most of which are dairy farms in NZ. Sister company AGInvest does the farm-management side of the business. MyFarm director Andrew Watters said fewer than half the numbers offarms were selling compared to last year. "The lower interest rates are coming through on new properties - a mixture of longer-term and shorter-term debt, and we're paying about six per cent now," he said. "We have syndicated three farms on behalf of investors in the past four months, and are currently doing a deal for a fourth." He said they were smaller properties than those the company previously bought for investment, and most of them had higher equity, so there was less risk associated with them. "We have bought a drystock 300-hectare farm, and a 500-cow property and a 750-cow property. The place we are talking about now is a 450-cow property." "We have been able to secure loans for between five and 6.3 per cent for one to five year money, and, because there are fewer buyers out there, farms are much more affordable." Four of the past five investors had been former farmers who sold their property and didn't want to have all their money in the bank. "In a bank, they earn interest which is taxed, and inflation takes a toll on the amount. They want at least some of it invested in land, which they understand."
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