Where can I find the cheapest Farm acerage in Aust?

B

bobbiemenzies

I'm curious about the price of farmland - freehold, preferably on the outskirts of a city or growing (not shrinking) town with existing infrastructure and a rising population. I'm not actually a farmer, more an investor.

What should one pay per acre? Where are the best deals? How does one avoid pitfalls? Is it possible to "buy and hold" and reap the benefits in a decade or so? Are there any tax benefits in owning rural land? In the past I knew a pilot who bought a hobby farm because there were tax benefits in getting cheap fuel etc.

Do I have to be an expert in agriculture and soil science to make a dollar.

Please share
 
I think you're actually after the most expensive farmland not the cheapest with that criteria.

The cheap stuff would be the really marginal vast tracts in the inland, where you run one cow per 500 acres. No development potential whatsoever.

There *was* a farm here adjacent to the most recent subdivision of a growing town that was for sale for two years, but someone bought it (at a 20% discount) a few weeks ago ... per acre, or just as a house, it was very expensive, but as a potential subdivision like you are obviously thinking, it would have been a goldmine.

That kind of property isn't all that common, or particularly cheap, unfortunately.
 
Alas Rumpled, I feared as much.

Does anyone have any other ideas? Cheap is good. I know freehold land in the north is sometimes affected by native title and i'm told there is a land shortage outside towns like Pt Hedland. True?

Moving along, I heard of someone who bought a quarry on acerage.....any opportunities out there?

And out where Topcropper lives, some farms have coal that can (depending on price) be exploited.....are such opportunities fully priced?

Am I dreaming........are there any bargains out there, gems in the rough that nobody wants.
 
bobbiemenzies said:
I'm curious about the price of farmland - freehold, preferably on the outskirts of a city
Click to expand...


Any farm land with the potential of subdivision for firstly smaller hobby farms, and then later residential within 20 years, generally has the potential priced in. So, once that is priced in, it no longer is trading as farm land, [priced on it's agricultural profitability], but priced as real estate.

To complicate things further, in my area, people want small farms with views for the lifestyle. They want mountain views, piece and quiet, land for horses and dirtbikes and a nice creek. So all the small farms, 100 to 250 hectares, even 20 or 30 ks from town, up all the valleys with mountain views, have been selling as real estate for years now. They are valued as much or more than the black soil plains, about $5000 a hectare, even though the profitability of such blocks would be only a half or third as much as the plains dirt.



Farm land is priced accordingly. If there is subdivision potential it's priced in. If it's flat, dry, unproductive, unattractive, 200 miles from a town it's priced in. If it's beautiful and green with mountain views and with a river you can canoe down and a patch of rainforest right next door to a coastal town, it's priced in. If it's highly profitable dirt as a real farm it's priced in.

You'll get farm land 5 minutes from Byron Bay for $250,000 a hectare, and farm land 2 hours from Woop Woop for $5 a hectare and anywhere in between.

Any dirt on the outskirts of a city has the subdivision potential priced in. We may all be a bit slower out in these parts, but we are not stupid. A big regional city like Tamworth might have the farm land valued as real estate out as far as 40 ks from town. I'd guess any farm land 1.5 hours or less from Sydney would be valued as real estate rather than as a farm.



Just a thought though, the biggest bargains would probably be in areas where there has been a few terrible droughts in a row. Check out southern NSW and northern Vic. That counts my area out.


See ya's.
 
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Interesting thread. In Sydney, places like Nelson and Box Hill already have 5 acres asking $1.5m in the area slated for subdivision and this is already 47kms to the city.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how far urban sprawl can spread in our main capitals? Can anyone foresee people living 100kms from the city and still commuting without substantial improvements in public transport?
 
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bobbiemenzies said:
Am I dreaming........are there any bargains out there, gems in the rough that nobody wants.
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You should have started this thread 3 weeks ago. Like I said, we had that gem. 40 acres, sold for $250k, two main road frontages, potential to split into ~40 blocks at $60k each, less infrastructure costs of putting some roads and stobey poles in. There's nothing else around here quite like that one, probably won't be for a long long time. You could have rented the house out for $200 a week while it was waiting on the right moment to divide, since it is the next paddock across from the subdivision and you'd probably have to wait for that one to get divided first.

And it was for sale for 2 years, so your timing really is spectacularly bad :p

Medium acreage *in* the town here is selling at around $500k a pop because it is flat (that 40 acre block was sloped with very impressive views) and you can split it into 1000sqm blocks at 55k each. But again, its pretty much all gone now - this town has been evolving from a mere agricultural service town into rich retiree snobsville for the last 3 or 4 years, so the moment to buy for large subdivisions has passed. You're going to have to do some serious research to catch the next town on the boom.
 
garbage said:
Interesting thread. In Sydney, places like Nelson and Box Hill already have 5 acres asking $1.5m in the area slated for subdivision and these areas and this is already 47kms to the city.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how far urban sprawl can spread in our main capitals? Can anyone foresee people living 100kms from the city and still commuting without substantial improvements in public transport?
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Brisbane has many people doing the (near) 100km commute. I live on the southern end of the sunshine coast and work 3 days a week on the northern end of Bris.. but still a 70km trip. (Hwy, cruise control driving takes me 50 mins most days.) I am certainly NOT the only one. I recognise the same cars day in day out. I am sure the commute from the gold coast is the same.

Judging by the "packed-ness" (hehehe new word) of the Nambour to Brisbane train every morning, I am guessing there needs to be a bit of an improvement in the train timetable. (possibly one extra train every hour from 2 to 3 during peak hour)
 
bobbiemenzies said:
I'm curious about the price of farmland - freehold, preferably on the outskirts of a city or growing (not shrinking) town with existing infrastructure and a rising population. I'm not actually a farmer,
Click to expand...
This would be one of the lower end hobby farms in QLD,i know nothing about farming,but when i rang the agent up he told me you can plant nails and grow star pickets,what ever that means:rolleyes:..imho willair..

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...r=&cc=&c=82458018&s=qld&snf=rbs&tm=1247133833
 
I normally take the view that if a farm that can support a family costs $X in one place, it will cost the same somewhere else although the areas of the farms and type of farming might be different. Rough generalisation. Also don't assume in NSW that you will get permission to subdivide as there have been some moves to limit rural subdivision so that farms can remain viable.

I have some friends on 100 acres outside a far western town. They talk at different times of getting a weekend block of 10,000 acres.
 
Family had a couple of farms in Crookwell NSW, about half hour from Goulburn, so only 2.5 hrs from Sydney.

Its mainly Sheep and Cattle country, but there are pockets of very fertile land. And you can buy acerage very cheap. Positive points? close to sydney, close to a very large regional town. Bad points: take a permaculture course, as you need to be VERY water savvy. Not much rainfall per year......

Family had a 60 acre farm at Wheeo, and at night we could see the lights of Canberra... amazing veiws.. pretty isolated though.
 
This subject interests me. Thought I'd see what's out there.



http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...t=&header=&cc=&c=39268685&s=nsw&tm=1247132833

Yarramalong Valley. $1,225,000.
Probably a 1000 mills rainfall. 1.5 hours from Sydney.
45 hectares,
say the house is worth $425,000.
Land worth $800,000.
Dirt worth $17,700 per hectare.

Now that's surprising to me. I'd thought the Yarramalong Valley was more expensive than that? I know some people up there. Probably only double the agricultural value. Can't believe it. I don't think this land has increased much in value for a while. Maybe the place has lost value once John Laws sold out.:)




http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...t=&header=&cc=&c=46961501&s=nsw&tm=1247133489

25 mins from Byron bay. $3,750,000.
10.2 hectares
Probably a 1700 mills rainfall. Say the house is worth a million,
Land worth $2,750,000.
Dirt worth $270,000 per hectare.

Probably 10 times the agricultural value. And that's 25 mins from Byron bay :eek: Imagine the value of land just 5 minutes out.




http://agents.realestate.com.au/cgi...18242272&time=1247134397&f=0&p=10&tot=4&t=rur

This place is just up the road from me.
The slopes of the Liverpool Plains. 4.5 hours from Sydney. $1,200,000
216 hectares.
700 mills rainfall. say the house is worth $250,000
Land worth $950,000.
Dirt worth $4400 per hectare.

Families would have made a comfortable living off this farm until 20 years ago. Now it'd be classed as not a real farm, more lifestyle. You'd need other income, or be a real tightar$e. Probably valued just a bit over the agricultural value. I know this place was worth $28/h in 1912. About $300/h 1975. $4400/h today.




http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...t=&header=&cc=&c=40638171&s=nsw&tm=1247135985

Here's a real farm in northern NSW.
Moree. $7,750,000
1960 hectares.
600 mills rainfall. say the house and infrastructure is worth $750,000
Land worth $7 million.
Dirt worth $3750 per hectare.

Sounds a bit over priced to me. Moree dryland black stuff is not worth $3750, or else my Liverpool plains stuff is worth a lot more. I'd offer 6 mil.




of course this is all way off topic of the cheapest farm land. Head out further then.:D


See ya's.
 
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RumpledElf said:
You should have started this thread 3 weeks ago. Like I said, we had that gem. 40 acres, sold for $250k, two main road frontages, potential to split into ~40 blocks at $60k each, less infrastructure costs of putting some roads and stobey poles in. There's nothing else around here quite like that one, probably won't be for a long long time. You could have rented the house out for $200 a week while it was waiting on the right moment to divide, since it is the next paddock across from the subdivision you'd probably have to wait for that one to get divided first. And it was for sale for 2 years, so your timing really is spectacularly bad :p
QUOTE]

Where was this located Rumpled? Sounds great!
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topcropper said:
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...t=&header=&cc=&c=39268685&s=nsw&tm=1247132833

Yarramalong Valley. $1,225,000.
Probably a 1000 mills rainfall. 1.5 hours from Sydney.
45 hectares,
say the house is worth $425,000.
Land worth $800,000.
Dirt worth $17,700 per hectare.

.
Click to expand...


I reckon this place is a bit of a bargain after looking at it again this morning. There's actually a second house on the property, so there'd be possibly 600,000 dollars worth of houses on the place, although there's no picture of the second house. Perhaps it's a total wreck?

What do others reckon? Hard to see how this wouldn't be a good investment in 10 years time. I like the Yarramalong Valley. Nice land and not far from anything. Very pretty place with patchs of rainforest and rich land in the creek flats.

See ya's.
 
newhigh said:
Where was this located Rumpled? Sounds great!
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I was going to post the link but its not in the re.com.au Sold data (sold in May so a bit longer than 3 weeks) - it was on the edge of Jamestown, where I live. Particularly nice town. Lived near it for 6 years watching a new house pop up every other day, and then started watching the new subdivisions open, sell out and get built on with very nice houses (which are now reselling for ~$400k :eek:), rinse and repeat - also lots of new commercial builds going up with lots of new local jobs. To top it off, the local airstrip just got surfaced to a standard they can take bigger planes in any weather and they're planning on doing a regular run from here to Roxby/Olympic Dam.

Moved there myself 2 months ago (money where your mouth is and all that) and really don't have anything bad to say about the place. I can cancel that out by talking about the *other* small regionals out this way if you like, I don't have anything good to say about those :rolleyes:
 
Partner has one for sale in between Shepparton and Echuca, 3 street frontages, subdivided into 3, house, b i g dam, milking sheds. Think he would sell for $400k
 
willair said:
This would be one of the lower end hobby farms in QLD,i know nothing about farming,but when i rang the agent up he told me you can plant nails and grow star pickets,what ever that means:rolleyes:..imho willair..

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...r=&cc=&c=82458018&s=qld&snf=rbs&tm=1247133833
Click to expand...

lol. You real don't know anything about farming, do you. Farming nails can be very profitable but takes a long time. it takes about twenty years for those nails to grow into an iron ore deposit.
 
hurrah for topcropper's cheapest pick!

topcropper said:
Well, here's a cheapie,....

http://www.eldersrealestate.com.au/...ize=10&sort=0&price_from=&price_to=&&offset=0

Mount Magnet WA. $320,000 for 60,000 hectares. $5.33 a hectare.
240 mills average rainfall. But there's a bit of infrustructure there including a house, shed, shearing shed etc. Take that out it's probably nearly half, or
$3.00 a hectare for the dirt. :eek: Anyone find cheaper than that?
See ya's.
Click to expand...

Topcropper, you are a hero! This has to be Australia's cheapest land. Felt like reaching out for the chequebook and snapping it up right away, without further ado. Well done for spotting it! I bet there's nothing cheaper in the entire country.

Pity its leasehold. What's it cost in annual charges? Can we do as we wish with the land as is (generally) the case with freehold? If a deposit of kryptonite or some other valuable substance is found on the land, does it belong to us or to the lessor?

Can anyone spot something as cheap but freehold?
 
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