FEWER farms changed hands in NSW last year compared to the previous year, according to the latest Landmark Harcourts Benchmark report, released this week.
While the value of farm land increased, in the year to November 2015 rural property agents had settled a whopping $8.4 billion worth of transactions but in 2016 only $7.9b worth of property changed hands.
The report showed just under 12,000 agricultural properties sold in NSW during the 12 months to November – a drop of 8.9pc on the previous year when 13,140 properties transacted.
The report shows small farms were the order of the day in 2016. Of the 11,971 sales made, 68.4pc were on a land size of less than 40 hectares, with farm purchases decreasing with size. Fifteen per cent of sales were 40 to 100ha in size; 4.5pc were 100 to 1,000ha and just 1.9pc of properties were bigger than 1,000ha
Small farms (four to 40ha) near Canberra were the most popular while small farms in the Illawarra region were the most expensive with a median price of $1.2 million.
The most farms to sell which fell into the 1000ha + category were in the Far West region. The median price for farms in this district was $910, 000. Farms of this size in the New England area fetched a median price of $3.2m.