Rural General Manager at Property Brokers Conrad Wilkshire joined REX hosts Rebecca Greaves and Hamish McKay with the latest update
He told REX that tier-one properties sold well this season and is optimistic this trend will continue.
"While there is a lot of chat around 12 successive OCR increases and all that, it's clear to us that tier-one properties that have sold well this season are expected to sell well again this year," he said.
"We had some very strong buyer interest [at Fieldays] from people who have done well from this current season and are looking to invest."
Wilkshire noted that there are a few other factors that are a bit more complicated to interpret that could impact the prosperity of this year's market.
Tier two properties tend to not have quite the best soils, could be on sloped land or their compliance isn't up to standard while tier three's might be quite a significant distance from the closest town and have difficult ground to build on and manage.
For tier two and three dairy properties in particular, Wilkshire said unless there is a genuine dairy buyer interested it's difficult to find anyone else willing to buy such a large piece of rural land.
"Unless there is a genuine dairy buyer out there the next alternative land use is finishing and that's at often quite a discount to what the vendor might be expecting from an existing and proven dairy operation.
"I think there is a lot of work to be done in that area, I really do."
Wilkshire told Greaves and McKay he doesn't believe these dairy properties are necessarily best suited to equity syndicates but better placed for the 'owner operator' who wants to get a start in farming.
"I wouldn't rule these businesses out but it needs a new set of eyes and I would raise the question, where are our young farmers getting a foothold in the rural property ladder?"
"I do actually think they offer great value."
In the 200 farms, they have sold in the last year, he said there are 'less than a handful' of genuine first-farm opportunities.
"I just don't think we are doing enough to create those pathways.
"We're not going to solve it all with one strategy but I do think part of the strategy has to be getting good, young farmers on the rural property ladder and dairy, I think, has a big hockey stick on the next five to ten years."
Listen to the full chat between Property Brokers GM of Rural Conrad Wilkshire, Rebecca Greaves and Hamish McKay above.
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