The buoyancy in the dairy industry is now being reflected in property values.
Dairy farm prices have hit new records, latest Real Estate Institute (REINZ) figures show.
The dairy farm median price for the three months to January rose to $4.25 million, from $3.58 million in the threemonths to December.
The national median price for all farms increased from $1.65m to $1.79m on the back of the strong dairy trend, REINZ said.
During the three months to January 732 farms sold, compared with 753 sales for the three months to December.
REINZ rural spokesman Peter McDonald said the institute had been advising for a while to watch the flow-on effect of record dairy payouts on dairy farm prices.
"The latest figures really promote dairy farmers into a new Rich List category of their own in the farming community," he said.
The 156 dairy farm sales in the three months to January - the peak transaction period for dairy farms - compared with 133 to December and 102 to January 2007.
Existing dairy farmers were taking advantage of increased incomes to expand into further or larger properties and city investors were deciding now was the time to invest in dairying, Mr McDonald said.
The rising dairy farm prices saw the average price per hectare increase to over $37,000, with the price per kg of milk solids rising to over $40. The combined average price per milk solids/hectare was over $6000.
Three sales in the latest period in the Otautau region in Southland included a 247ha property sold for $12.275m, while the other two slightly smaller properties went for $9.6m and $9.9m.
For arable farms the median was up from $1.76m in the three months to December, to $1.95m. Finishing properties were up from $2.18m to $2.35m.
Grazing properties were in demand, with the median up from $1.2m to $1.3m on 300 sales. The horticulture median slipped to $920,000 from $930,000 on 34 sales down from 45.
In the lifestyle property sector the median rose from $455,000 to $460,000 on 1701 sales for the three months to January, from 1793 in the three months to December.
The most expensive lifestyle blocks were in the Auckland region at a median of $793,000, followed by Hawke's Bay at $550,000 and Waikato at $499,000.
