Real estate market buoyant
High milk prices are generating heat in the rural real estate market as buyers advance on dairying and dairy-support land. Cash-flush farmers with more income from a payout expected to reach $7/kg of milk solids are investing or forming syndicates to increase their holdings. They will have taken the lion’s share of the 44 grazing farms and 16 finishing blocks that were among 144 farms sold in Canterbury in the three months to February. Fifteen dairy farms were also sold. Canterbury farm prices have risen to $1.6 million from a median of $1.3m over the same period a year ago, although this has softened from $1.95m in the three months to January.
