Australian farmland prices tripled across decade

The prices for farmland in Australia has tripled over the past decade, outpacing housing and the cost of living.

Transcript

00:00Kim Howes is doing her daily check of some of the many thoroughbred racehorses at her

00:07adjustment complex.

00:08They're here to have a nice break, to relax their brain, to grow, just to have a break

00:15from the everyday rigours of racing.

00:18So we try to provide a nice calm environment where they can truly relax and have a holiday.

00:26This is the Bellarine Peninsula on the coastal plain west of Melbourne, one of the fastest

00:31growing lifestyle regions in the country, where the influx of people is putting pressure

00:36on land use and land prices.

00:40So yes there are pressures.

00:41I think we're safe for a little while and we certainly love living here and we love

00:44the peace and tranquillity of it, but it's just reality, the houses are coming.

00:51It's a common story, not just in coastal regions, but across much of Australia.

00:57Farmland values across the board have seen a recent meteoric rise.

01:02It's a stunning number, the land values have tripled over the last 10 years.

01:06It's been a strong run too across the decade in most parts of the country.

01:10We track the data each year and produce a report which does look back over 29 years

01:17and around 280 odd thousand transactions have happened over that period of time, but it

01:21really has taken off in the last five years, very strong.

01:27In a banking career spanning 37 years, Andrew Smith of Rural Bank has closely charted farmland

01:33values and never, till now, has seen such a sustained surge.

01:38Yeah, we saw a real supply of rural properties in those peri-urban zones around regional

01:43cities, metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney and people looking to move out.

01:48The bank is the agricultural division of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.

01:53Its annual farmland value report is based on an analysis of sales of more than 40 hectares

01:58in size for prices and locations.

02:02The report also reveals who has been buying what land.

02:06When you look at the number of transactions that happen each year, there's certainly those

02:09larger institutional type investors who might have been buying or selling, but it's really

02:15been dominated by the family farms and in most parts of the country as well, so that

02:20does require confidence and I guess when you've got interest rates quite low and the appetite

02:25and bank balance is fairly strong, there was a real push to expand in that period.