Property report: A fantastic year for rural sales

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

As far as the general state of the rural real estate market is concerned, Peter reckons it’s 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.

Rowena asked Peter to look into his crystal ball and predict prospects for spring. Peter says he expects good interest in spring listings as farmers bank the sizable returns from the last few seasons. Some are looking at retirement and putting succession plans in place.

Peter also expects more dairy sales later this year. But he cautions that with the high value of dairy properties, the buyer pool is very small. Vendors need to take this into account when selling. As for the impact of forestry, he says this will just realign values and not effect sales volumes.

Buyer sentiment is a big ongoing factor for rural listings and sales, along with lifestyle and residential. Many commentators are suggesting a massive decline in values. Peter says it MIGHT happen – but no one really knows. Look at what happened as we came out of COVID.