NSW Riverina farm triples in value in eight years
A renowned livestock station near Wanganella in the NSW Riverina has more than tripled in value in less than eight years, after changing hands for more than $15 million.
Highlighting how rural property values have soared over the past few years, 6,749ha Booabula was offered for sale by the Hay-based Cox family, which paid just $4.36 million for it in June 2014.
The new owner – an unidentified local farmer – will return Booabula, which offers 15 kilometres of Billabong Creek frontage, to a Merino sheep-breeding operation, after father Alan and son David Cox converted it to beef cattle breeding when they purchased it from the Redeski family in 2014.
“Booabula is an outstanding property, which ideally suited the purchaser’s needs for a grazing property in the Riverina with the security of some irrigation,” said CBRE agent Boo Harvey who negotiated the off-market deal.
“Grazing properties of this scale and quality are very tightly held, with the transaction secured off-market, in a successful outcome for both parties.”
Before being acquired by the Cox family, Booabula was held by the Wallace family – founders in 1870 of the renowned Booabula merino stud – for over 100 years.
While the price was not disclosed, it is understood Booabula sold for between $15 million and $16 million.
CBRE agribusiness managing director David Goodfellow said demand for rural properties in the NSW Riverina was very strong with “continued interest from investors seeking to secure low-input grazing land”.
Rural lending specialist Rabobank recorded 10 per cent growth in agricultural land vales in 2021, and is forecasting an 8 per cent rise in agricultural land in 2022, and a 5 per cent rise in 2023.
Also demonstrating the strong appetite for prime farmland, Somerset, an 892ha mixed-farming property on the Manning River west of Taree, sold for $8 million at an online auction last week.
Somerset generated competition from five bidders (15 registered for the auction) after being marketed by Bruce Birch and Rob Chapman from Ray White.
The final selling price was double the opening bid of $4 million, Mr Birch told The Australian Financial Review.
“We had strong interest from grazing families as well as a scattering of lifestyle buyers and investors,” he said.
The successful buyers were a local grazing family that acquired Somerset to expand their cattle farming activities in the area, Mr Birch said.
He declined to name the buyer, but said they were well-known in the area.
“There are few places of this scale on the Manning River. When you drive through, you see a lot of 50 to 200 acre blocks,” Mr Birch said.
Mr Birch said two or three of the groups that inspected the property were looking to escape from Sydney (3.5 hours away) with the ability to work remotely.
However, he said valuations of Somerset as a lifestyle property were not as high as those as a farming property.
