Newbold agreed with this assessment.
He said there was a lot of demand, especially when investors and traditional farmers were added to the buyers interested in the forestry side.
The demand was there and values were strong, Newbold said, and the forestry people were prepared to pay a premium to get what they wanted.
"It's definitely good for vendors, I'm just not so sure how good it is long-term for New Zealanders but that's another story."
Mackay asked if any of the more extensive sheep and beef properties coming on the market were going back to sheep and beef - or were they all going to forestry?
According to Newbold, basically, all were going to forestry - although some properties were devoting just a portion of their land to forestry.
Mackay remarked that there was a lot of interest in support blocks right now.
He mentioned a rumour he'd heard that the most expensive farm sale recently in Canterbury wasn't a dairy farm or some high-value cropping land - it was for a support block.
Newbold said the demand was there because of huge interest from farmers seeking to increase their holdings, along with other investors seeking to get into the market.
Not a lot of properties in areas like Canterbury came to the market so vendors were getting strong values, he said.
Mackay turned to dairy farm sales.
Newbold thought there would be more dairy farm activity this year - slightly better than last year. The only challenge was large dairy farms.
When larger farms could sell for $20 to $40 million, the buyer pool was limited and both parties needed to be operating in the right space, which was critical, he said.
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When it came to horticulture, kiwifruit farms had been fetching record prices, with some properties in the Bay Of Plenty selling for up to $2 million dollars per canopy hectare, Mackay said.
Newbold reckoned values would stay strong with the number of listings building up earlier than last year.
As for lifestyle blocks, Newbold offered a contrary view to most commentators, saying he believed strong demand will stay.
With the cost of building rising, people will be drawn to properties in provincial New Zealand that are relatively new, and that will maintain demand and values, he said.
