Article by Tallis Miles, courtesy of The Weekly Times
24.06.2025
A trio of key players has emerged as the dominant buyers in Australia’s rural property market, taking advantage of stable farmland values to expand their formidable agricultural portfolios.
Australia’s largest landholder by value, Canada’s mighty pension fund PSP Investments, was behind the nation’s largest farmland sale of the past financial year, paying half a billion dollars to acquire total ownership of the 30,000ha Kooba aggregation, near Griffith, NSW, via their Australian Food and Fibre vehicle.
Another major player this year was the emergence of American agricultural investor Farmland Reserve Inc – the investment arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – via its major cropping vehicle Alkira Farms.
Farmland Reserve snapped up four major cropping aggregations on Australia’s east coast in $480m worth of deals. The cornerstone of their Australian agricultural expansion was the $340m acquisition of the 26,885ha Worral Creek portfolio of southern Queensland irrigated and dryland farmland.
Herron Todd White VicTas director Graeme Whyte said buyer pools for rural property across the country were different depending on the scale of the farm for sale.
“Buyers above $30m are nearly always corporates – usually involving an Australian-based manager and often investing funds on behalf of large international investors,” Mr Whyte said.
“This group continues to be active; however deals can take longer, in part due to the need for FIRB approval but also due to the need to complete a large body of financial and environmental due diligence.
“Corporate buyers normally have funds ready to be deployed and so are motivated to be always looking for and eventually buying assets. This buyer group will at times offer more than a family run business is prepared or able to.
“There is a reasonable number of well capitalised family-run businesses capable of buying farms up to about $30m. These buyers are usually patient, will quickly rule out properties that they feel are overpriced or that don’t suit their needs and can usually make a straightforward offer with few conditions.”
Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has also been a major mover in the market, splashing more than $100m to snap up two NSW cattle properties via both her Hancock Agriculture and S.Kidman companies.
Early this year Ms Rinehart paid $70m-plus for the 10,000ha Wongaboori Station near Dubbo, plus S.Kidman and Co made its first land purchase in two decades with the $35m acquisition of Jindabyne, a 7000ha property north of Tamworth.
Mr Whyte said weather conditions and geopolitical movements were likely to be major factors to affect farm prices and buyer demand in the year ahead.
“Uncertainty over input costs is likely to also make buyers more cautious. Many farmers are saying that it is rising costs rather than lower revenue that is hurting their bottom line,” he said.
Australia’s top farm sales of the past year (2024-25)
$500M
KOOBA AGGREGATION, GRIFFITH, NSW
31,400 HECTARES
Buyer: Australian Food and Fibre (PSP Investments (Canada) and Robinson family), Stahmann Webster (PSP Investments (Canada))
Seller: KoobaCo (PSP Investments (Canada), Chris Corrigan, David Fitzsimons)
$340M
WORRAL CREEK AGGREGATION, TALWOOD, QLD
26,855 HECTARES
Buyer: Alkira Farms (Farmland Reserve Inc, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (US))
Seller: Reardon family (Talwood, QLD)
$77.75M
GATTONVALE HOLDING, COLLINSVILLE, QLD
31,474 HECTARES
Buyer: Simmons Cattle Company
Seller: Cox family
$70M-plus
WONGABOORI STATION, MENDOORAN, NSW
10,000 HECTARES
Buyer: Gina Rinehart (Hancock Agriculture)
Seller: Paul McGirr (Sydney, NSW)
$70M
SE QUEENSLAND ORCHARDS, BUNDABERG, DUMARESQ VALLEY, QLD
250 HECTARES, 2300 HECTARES
Buyer: A European family office
Seller: Undisclosed
$68M
CALROSSIE FARM, MOREE, NSW
5700 HECTARES
Buyer: Alkira Farms (Farmland Reserve Inc, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (US))
Seller: Proterra Investment Partners (US)
$60M
DELLAPOOL AGGREGATION, SANDIGO, NSW
2666 HECTARES
Buyer: GO.FARM
Seller: Ferrero (Italy)
$53M
KIMBERLEY MEAT COMPANY PORTFOLIO (YEEDA AND MT JOWLEENGA STATIONS), DERBY, WA
473,608 HECTARES
Buyer: Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) (Canada)
Seller: Kimberley Meat Company
UNDISCLOSED
FAIRVIEW AGGREGATION, LUCINDALE, SA
4360 HECTARES
Buyer: Ogilvie Group
Seller: Nicomax Properties Pty Ltd (Switzerland)
UNDISCLOSED
HOLLYMOUNT AND MT DRIVEN AGGREGATION, ST GEORGE, QLD
61,007 HECTARES
Buyer: Two Queensland grazier families
Seller: Hailiang Agriculture Australia (China)
$49M
FAIRFIELD STATION, BAUHINIA, QLD
10,522 HECTARES
Buyer: Twin Hills Cattle Company (Dennis family)
Seller: Scott family (Mt Gambier, SA)
