KEY POINTS:
With the residential property market mired in gloom, farm prices have continued to soar, attracting overseas investors and leading to the rise of a new rural rich.
The Real Estate Institute reports a record average farm sale price of more than $1.8 million for the three months to April - up more than half on the same period last year.
The boom is riding on the back of the resurgent dairy industry. Earlier this month a large King Country property sold to a syndicate for $32.5m to be used as a dairy support farm.
Last October, a Southland dairy farm sold for $29.3m. Several others have sold this year for $11m-$14.3m.
The institute's rural spokesman Peter McDonald said farms were looking like a safe harbour investment as economic conditions worsen and the residential property market deteriorates.
Rural communities are benefiting from the boom.
After 35 years milking cows, Kerry Logue is looking forward to his retirement.
His 113ha farm at Tomarata, north of Auckland, is on the market for $2.8m.
With a do-up villa near Wellsford and a home at Huia, the 62-year-old is sitting pretty.
"Thirty-five years milking is a long enough stint for anyone. My kids thought the old man was crazy still working seven days a week."
His timing has been perfect, but he feels for young farmers trying to enter the industry.
