Sales firming in WA's Wheatbelt region: HTW

The number of rural property settlements to international buyers in the wheatbelt region of south west Western Australia is up during the first half of the year according to Herron Todd White.

The analyst firm said seeding is well underway in the West Australian wheat belt as well, and with recent rain events and summer rains, the soil moisture content (a bit too high in some areas) across many regions is setting the season up well.

HTW said one of the largest sales in terms of land area was a 15,513 hectare cropping property located at Bodallin which sold for $8.525 million or $550 per hectare fence to fence.

"This purchaser has also bought a number of properties in the area and throughout some of the low rainfall areas with some reportedly on lease back arrangements," HTW said.

"With a good start for a number of growers and sales activity increasing over the past three years, it’s interesting to see what you could buy at the moment if you had over $10 million to invest in the WA agri land market.

"Research of real estate websites indicates that only one cropping property located at Three Springs is currently on the market with an asking price over $10 million.

"Other properties in this category include two cattle stations, a grazing property, a dairy property (south west), equestrian property and a couple of vineyards (south west).

"This is an indicator that the excess supply created by drought conditions earlier in the decade has started to reduce and supply of property in this category is currently considered low. We note that this could be due to people holding on to property until further in the season and waiting for the more traditional property trading seasons of spring and summer.

"Dependent on how this season progresses, we are likely to see an increase in market activity again this year.

"However, with the ABARES outlook for production and commodity prices to reduce and increases in values across some areas already pushing the limit on a return basis, it’s indicative that we could be heading towards the peak.

"As a tractor driver on the south coast recently said “there’s money in mud” which is true. The question on everyone’s minds is, how much money?"