Farm sales for latest quarter fall 30 percent

A wet start to spring undermined efforts in many rural communities. Pictured: A flooded Taieri River in late July at the Outram bridge, near Dunedin. Photo: Gerard O'Brien

Farm sales across the country mirrored their urban housing cousins, booking a more than 30% plunge in the number of sales for the quarter ended September.

Residential housing data released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand last week showed a 26.2% plunge in the number of house sales for the month of September, while for the quarter to September there was a 30.2% decline in farm sales, down from 388 a year ago to 271.

REINZ rural spokesman Brian Peacocke said sales volumes for the three-month period ending September reflected the extreme climatic conditions faced by the farming community in recent months.

''Waterlogged pastures during September have resulted in a very slow start to the milk production season, and frustration for both arable farmers and agricultural contractors alike where ground conditions in many regions have kept machinery in the sheds,'' he said.

The median price per hectare for all farms sold in the quarter rose 2% on a year ago, up from $26,825 to $27,363.

The total number of farms sold in the year to September was down 6.6% on the previous year, to 1667, with 43.3% more finishing farms sold, 31.3% more dairy farms sold, but 29.1% fewer grazing and 25.8% fewer arable farms sold over the same period.

Eleven of 14 regions around the country recorded decreases in sales volume for the quarter to September compared with a year ago.

Mr Peacocke said while rural morale had been ''severely tested'' with the wet start to spring, there were redeeming features in the strengthening milk payout, stable interest rates and steady exchange rate environment, providing ''light at the end of the tunnel''.