Buyers queue to increase offer on $20m farm

A Northland farmer is unperturbed that he could have made an extra $5 million when he sold his Ruakaka farm.

Roger Pyle has an unconditional real estate deal on his 80-hectare property near Marsden Pt for a sale price of $20 million.

But he could have made more.

Since news spread of the purchase, more offers have been coming, including one for $25 million.

Peter Jennings, sales manager at Maxwells Real Estate at Albany, who organised the sale, said this week a 10 per cent deposit on the purchase price of $20 million had been put down on the farm. The remaining money is due in December.

However, he had been inundated with inquiries from people wanting to buy the block.

"The phone hasn't stopped ringing."

Mr Pyle, who is currently on holiday in North Queensland, was unconcerned about the massive offers from potential buyers.

"A lot of the offers come and go without me even knowing who's made them," he said.

"I accepted (the offer), I'm not going to try and get out of it unless there is a hiccup of some sort."

Developers are interested in the land, on the south side of the Whangarei Harbour, because it is the only industrial-zoned land in the area that is privately owned.

It is ideally placed to cater for One Tree Pt's expanding business district.

Mr Pyle's One Tree Pt neighbour, Bruce Cann, has also become a multi-millionaire.

He sold a 37-hectare portion of his farm for $6 million last year.

The two men have lived in the Bream Bay area all their lives, and their parents before them also farmed the area.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)