Jamie Mackay from The Country had a New Year chat with Peter Newbold, General Manager of PGG Wrightson Real Estate to look at the value of your farm.

Jamie started by raising anecdotal talk doing the rounds of a sheep and beef farm in the Hawke's Bay selling for twenty-two and a half thousand dollars per hectare - for trees. Peter confirmed he knows of one property selling for north of twenty - but that's the exception. The majority are between ten and fifteen thousand. Jamie asked the obvious question: Are any good sheep and beef properties being sold to sheep and beef farmers anymore? Peter says there are a few.
But of the key ones that have sold recently, the majority have gone to trees. PGG Wrightson has sold a few which have gone on to be sheep and beef blocks. Peter is of the opinion that we've reached a point now where we need to slow down on conversion to trees.

Turning to 2023, Jamie asked what activity we're going to see in the market in the New Year, especially in an environment with higher interest rates. Surely the rural market must cool it's heels? According to Peter, there have been a couple of good months recently. It's just slowed a little. He thinks 2023 will still be strong, with more listings coming onto the market in the early autumn period. You will see a stabilising of prices due to interest rates, costs on farm etc. There might be downward pressure depending on location. Jamie ventured that this may not be a bad thing. Peter agrees that there is a sweet point value-wise.
There needs to be an adjustment - it makes good sense.

Turning to the lifestyle market, Jamie remarks that it ran hot post pandemic. Everyone wanted out of town. Everyone wanted their green space in the country. Peter says the lifestyle market has really slowed - but it will come back. Vendors and purchasers are trying to find that price point. He thinks that as the New Year unfolds, this will bottom out. But each region is different. In some regions, the price might have dropped five percent. In others it might have dropped fifteen.

Finally Jamie touched on the horticulture sector. He brings up the halcyon days when a canopy hectare of kiwi fruit might sell for two million dollars. Has that ship sailed? Peter points out there hasn't been a lot of activity - and some value has come back out of that. Around March or April, there'll be some idea of what the crop's looking like. Then there'll be some activity and you'll see where values sit.