Property report: A fantastic year for rural sales

PGG Wrightson General Manager for Livestock and Rural Real Estate Peter Newbold. Photo / Supplied

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PGG Wrightson General Manager for Livestock and Rural Real Estate Peter Newbold has been on the road around the country and Rowena Duncum from The Country caught up with him in the mighty Manawatū.

As far as the general state of the rural real estate market is concerned, Newbold reckoned it had been an incredible autumn with a very high clearance rate – one of the best autumns ever with good weather and high values contributing to a fantastic year for rural sales.

Sheep and beef and grazing have been strong with large farm sales this year and some properties going to new entrants with little farming experience.

Duncum asked Newbold to look into his crystal ball and predict prospects for spring.

Newbold said he expected good interest in spring listings as farmers banked the sizable returns from the last few seasons.

Some were looking at retirement and putting succession plans in place.

While Newbold expected more dairy sales later this year, he cautioned that with the high value of dairy properties, the buyer pool was very small.

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Vendors needed to take this into account when selling, he said.

As for the impact of forestry, he said this would just realign values and not affect sales volumes.

Buyer sentiment was a big ongoing factor for rural listings and sales, along with lifestyle and residential, Newbold said.

Many commentators were suggesting a massive decline in values.

Newbold said that might happen – but no one really knew pointing out what happened as New Zealand came out of Covid.