Grazing-unit prices drop by a third

Northland grazing farm sale prices are lower than a year ago and the national median sales price for grazing units has dropped 32 per cent over the past 12 months.

Fifty-three farms were sold in Northland in the final quarter last year - 30 grazing units, nine finishing and five dairy farms, five forestry blocks, two arable and two horticultural properties.

Nationally, Real Estate Institute figures show there were 499 farms sales over this period, compared with 547 for the three months ended December 2015.

There were 1742 farms sold last year, 2.5 per cent fewer than in in 2015, with 28 per cent fewer dairy farms and 15 per cent grazing farms sold over the same period.

In Northland, the 30 grazing units sold in the three months to December 2016 had a median sales price of $8093 a hectare, down from $12,750 a year earlier.

The national median for grazing farm sales in the last quarter of 2016 (156 properties, median size 117ha) was $11,290 a hectare, down 32 per cent from $16,656 a year earlier.

The nine Northland finishing farms sold in the three months to December 2016 had a median sales price of $25,703 a hectare, down from $30,356 a month earlier but substantially more than the $19,744 median for sales in the final quarter of 2015.

The national median for finishing farm sales in the last quarter of 2016 (134 properties, median size 41ha) was $29,061 a hectare, up 24 per cent on $23,489 a year earlier.

The five Northland dairy farms sold in the three months to December 2016 had a median sales price of $13,305 a hectare, up on $11,338 a year earlier.

The national median for dairy farm sales in the last quarter of 2016 (72 properties, median size 101ha) was $72,301 a hectare, a big rise on $39,690 a year earlier.

The median price per hectare for dairy farms has risen 17 per cent over the past 12 months.

On a price per kilogram of milksolids basis, the median sales price was $43.55kgMS for the final quarter last year compared with $37.42kgMS a year earlier.

The five Northland forestry blocks sold over the past three month had a median sales price of $11,883 a hectare - a top return with the median for the 21 national forestry land sales over the same period only $6366.

The two Northland horticulture properties sold in the final quarter last year fetched a median $176,206 a hectare, a tad down on the region's $178,404 median in December 2015.

Nationally, 59 horticultural properties averaging 7ha sold in the final quarter last year for a median $189,916 a hectare, down from $222,607 a year earlier.

The median price per hectare for horticulture farms has fallen 16 per cent over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, 278 lifestyle properties sold in Northland in the three months to December 2016 for a median price of $450,000, up from $420,000 in November and $370,000 in the final quarter of 2015.

In the Auckland region, 351 lifestyle properties were sold in the final quarter of last year for a median price of $1.21 million, up from $1.05 million a year earlier and $958,000 in December 2014.

There were 2191 lifestyle property sales nationally in the three months to December 2016 with their median price a record $583,000 - $33,000 higher than a year earlier.

The 9036 lifestyle properties sold nationally last year - 11 per cent more than in 2015 - had a value of $6.9billion.