Gina Rinehart was active in autumn, buying the 10,029ha Moolan Downs Station in Queensland and the 8371ha Ottley Station in NSW.
Plunging livestock prices, rising interest rates, unsteady milk markets, doomed live sheep exports and talk of an El Nino weather pattern- hardly factors to inspire confidence in agriculture.
But try telling that to the rural property market, with farm sales having powered through an otherwise uncertain autumn.
Farm sales continued to break records over the past three months, albeit at a slower pace than seen in the past two years.
Leading the pack for the prime autumn-selling season was $28 million paid for the1645 hectare (4063 acre) grain and grazing operation Warranoy on NSW’s South West Slopes, north of Wallendbeen.
Not far behind was $23 million for West Australian cropping operation Daisy Downs.
The 27,568-hectare property, about 100 kilometres north-east of Geraldton, was bought by Low Carbon Australia, a company owned by oil giant BP.
While most of the property will be leased for cropping, BP plans to establish wind turbines and a solar farm across 100 hectares to generate 10 gigawatts of renewable energy.
Topping the price a hectare chart was a former dairy property in Victoria’s South Gippsland.
The 86-hectare Wonthaggi block sold for $4.681 million, equating to $54,437 a hectare ($22,000 an acre).
Its coastal views and relative proximity to Melbourne (120km) were said to be significant factors behind the price.
A number of properties claimed district record prices during autumn. These included:
Central Queensland property El Rocco, which sold for $14.5 million, or $7207/ha ($2916/acre).
The2767 hectare Central NSW property Bernafay, which sold for $6.52 million, a Nyngan district record of $2356/ha ($953/acre).
Two adjacent lots across 307 hectares of prime cropping country at Arthurton on the Yorke Peninsula, which sold for $9.9 million. This was believed to be a local record of $32,248 a hectare, ($13,026 an acre).
The 5537-hectare grazing property Strathavon, located 86km northwest of Blackall, Queensland, sold for $6.3 million, which equated to $1138/ha ($460/acre).
Maranoa property Bindango sold for $13.4 million, a new high for the district. The sale price equated to about $5642/ha ($2282/acre).
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart continued to be a major property-market player during autumn, with her Hancock Agriculture buying the Packhorse Pastoral Company operations Ottley Station in NSW and Moolan Downs in Queensland last week for an undisclosed sum.
The purchases re-affirmed her strategy of buying east-coast grazing properties after last year’s sale of a number of large northern cattle stations she owned as part of S. Kidman and Co.
LAWD senior director Colin Medway said the autumn property market had been “pretty good, considering”.
“It’s had a few headwinds – obviously interest rates, it’s been dry in some regions and livestock markets have slid. Despite that, there is still a reasonable amount of buyer interest out there looking to buy good assets,” Mr Medway said. He did, however, say the level of buyer inquiry was lower than it had been in recent years.Instead of up to 10 parties vying for a property, it was back to 2-4 serious buyers, he said.
“But where it was over the past couple of years wasn’t normal. It was abnormally high, so it was always going to return to more normal levels, and that is what we are seeing now.”
Mr Medway believed while prices may have consolidated in autumn, buyers who thought properties would be cheaper come spring would be disappointed.
According to major property agent Elders, farm and values rose 18.1 per cent last year on top of a 18.2 per cent lift the year before.
Elders’ Rural Property Update, released last month, said farm values were basically doubling every seven years.
