Tens of millions of dollars have changed hands in farmland property transactions during another strong peak spring selling season this year.
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And as demand continues to run seemingly unabated, it appears the strength of the market will persist into 2024 on the back of continued low supplies coming to market.
It is the time of year when unconditional offers on winter and spring listings start to settle and some eye-watering results are revealed or speculated about.
Elders Real Estate senior rural real estate executive Simon Cheetham said although farmer-to-farmer sales have been the predominant sale type within Elders Real Estate, there are numerous properties under contract to forestry, carbon and renewable energy companies.
The Ray White Rural WA team, even with all their years of experience, has never seen a time where the rural property market has such a diverse range of buyers active in the market, said company director Hugh Ness.
Ray White Rural WA's Kate Jefferies said even though the spring selling season saw some caution creeping into the market, with higher interest rates, seasonal pressures and lower commodity prices, there were some exceptional sales results still achieved across the region.
"We believe 2024 will continue to bring plenty of opportunities for both buyers and sellers," Ms Jefferies said.
Nutrien Harcourts WA set a record in the value of real estate transactions for the 2023 calendar year, with some prize family enterprises selling.
Company real estate manager - west, Jon Bahen said while land values through the grazing and higher rainfall areas had been steady, the broadacre Wheatbelt regions had continued to attract high levels of interest - with property changing hands at unprecedented land values.
"We have sold several substantial whole family enterprises through the Great Southern," Mr Bahen said.
"Farms that have taken generations to develop and aggregate have hit the market and received strong interest from both corporate investors and substantial farming families seeking the opportunity to expand locally or relocate from higher rainfall areas, where there has been limited opportunity to expand."
Mr Bahen said he could not foresee a great slowdown in land values into the new year as there was fresh capital entering the market from players such as the United Kingdom and Canadian investment funds and energy corporations seeking opportunities to offset carbon and invest in renewable energy projects.
He said new players in the market were competing with very efficient family and corporate farming enterprises sitting on substantial equity freshly topped-up with record sales of neighbouring properties.
"All things being equal and an average season for 2024, we anticipate another record sales result and continued farm prosperity," Mr Bahen said.
Nutrien Harcourts WA recently sold a Jacup property, Kembah, for an undisclosed sum.
Unconfirmed reports are that it made close to its asking price of $14-15 million.
The purchasers and terms of the deal are being kept under wraps due to confidentiality arrangements.
But the transaction will settle early next year, according to Nutrien Harcourts WA agent Terry Norrish, who closed the deal.
Kembah is in the highly sought-after Jerramungup region, where annual rainfall is about 400 millimetres and seasons are characterised by cool-mild season finishes.
The 2503 hectares property has been 100 per cent cropped in recent years using high inputs and achieving high returns.
Kembah was an outstanding opportunity to acquire quality cropping soils in what is a mostly open plain landscape suitable for growing cereals and oilseeds.
It was a well set up grazing operation before its cropping potential was fully realised.
The sale of the well-known Warekila property, near Esperance - formerly owned by Chris Reichstein - for $11.65m in October was understood to have set a new record high price for per hectare broadacre cropping land in WA.
The result was about $3m - or abut 30pc - higher than had been initially thought by stakeholders.
Auction bidding through Elders Real Estate started at $4m and the property was knocked down to local farmers Ian, Jamie and Anthony Hesford, who were vying with 12 other bidders, including six local families who helped to push prices up.
When the hammer fell at $11.65m, this equated to $19,846 per arable hectare - or $8031 per arable acre.
Mr Cheetham, who ran the auction, said 703ha of the Warakila property was offered at the auction, of which 587ha was arable.
"The final result is certainly considered a record price per hectare for the Esperance region and is likely to be a record for any broadacre cropping property within WA," Mr Cheetham said.
He said Elders Real Estate had undertaken the marketing campaign for Warekila, which is in the northern Neridup region, and enquiry had been very strong.
"Our local rural real estate representative in Esperance, Rob Johnstone, is to be commended for the way he conducted the entire marketing campaign and sale, with it being several years in the making," Mr Cheetham said.
"Mr Johnstone always had the utmost respect for Mr Reichstein and his efforts, attention to detail and communication were all described as being outstanding and professional by the sellers after the auction."
It is understood Gina Rinehart's Hancock Holdings secured the Threebrooks property in the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes, handled by Mike Batchelor and Ms Jefferies, Ray White Rural WA, for an undisclosed sum - but believed to be above $6m.
Mr Batchelor and Ms Jefferies did not confirm who the buyers were or the price paid for this holding.
With four adjoining titles totalling 537.48ha, of which about 80pc is grazable, this is a very viable-sized holding for this area.
Centrally located only an hour from Bunbury and almost halfway between Albany and Perth it is a convenient location for market access and services.
Threebrooks has predominantly been run as a cattle and sheep grazing property, with some hay and silage production.
The arable country adds value to the already productive grazing country across the farm, allowing for a mixed enterprise operation.
There is scope to increase the cropping side of the operation, or to diversify into other enterprises.
The farm has been previously well managed with consistent fertiliser application, some liming and conservative paddock rotations.
The purchase of Threebrooks is just the latest in a series of South West acquisitions by Valley River Holdings - an entity of Hancock Prospecting - and has led to much speculation that Ms Rinehart is shifting her focus somewhat from pastoral cattle operations to more temperate enterprises.
In recent years, she has offloaded 10 of her pastoral stations and taken up smaller properties in the South West.
During the spring, Ms Jefferies sold the 1228ha Pamdon farm at Jerramungup for an undisclosed sum and to undisclosed buyers.
This farm is a single title in a reliable and productive area between Jerramungup and Jacup, in the 400mm annual rainfall zone.
It presents the perfect opportunity for expanding the cropping enterprise due to its clean, open, easy working paddocks, solid fertiliser history and productive soil types.
It has been well managed and presents a promising investment in the region.
Situated only 20km from Jerramungup, 200km from Albany and 300km from Esperance, it is in a convenient location and only 30km from the nearest CBH receival site at Jacup.
Ray White Rural WA also sold the Echidna Ridge aggregation at Pingrup.
At 436 Townsend Road, Pingrup, it spans 5937.56ha and is fully set up for cropping and grazing enterprises.
It is a well established farm with a mix of developed and managed soil types.
It has more than 55km of new fencing and a complete set of infrastructure, including new central sheep yards, three shearing sheds and a machinery shed.
Ms Jefferies handled this sale.
She also sold a one title 1399.55ha property on Gray Road, Nyabing, to strong local enquiry.
It is understood the price received was close to the guide price of $3.9m.
Again, this is a well managed mixed farming block.
It has easy working lighter soil types that have received good fertiliser applications and been subjected to conservative cropping rotations.
Infrastructure includes a five-stand shearing shed, fertiliser and machinery sheds, yards and tanks.
Located 28km from Nyabing and 85km from Katanning, it offers proximity to grain receival sites, sheep saleyards and full range of amenities and services.
It has gently undulating topography with lighter easy working soil types ranging from sandy to gravelly sandy loams.
The property has a solid fertiliser history and has been managed with a 50:50 cropping/grazing rotation for many years.
Its productive easy working soil types are well suited for cereals, oilseeds and lupins.
It has good clover pastures and effective weed management has been carried out.
Mr Ness sold Cloveroak at Cuballing for an undisclosed sum to undisclosed buyers.
This is an outstanding grain and grazing property of 2197ha in the heart of the Great Southern, adjoining the Cuballing townsite and about 17km from Narrogin.
It is predominantly highly fertile with a strong granite influence.
In September, Elders Real Estate had a successful auction of Owen and Sandy Boxall's property Kinross, between Kojonup and Katanning, knocking it down for $4.4m.
The sale price equates to $12,828 per arable hectare or $5191 per arable acre.
The vendors enlisted Elders Real Estate Katanning and real estate sales specialist Ian Hanna to market the property and run the auction process.
Mr Hanna said it attracted strong interest from local farmers looking to expand their operations or consolidate in the area.
He said Kinross was an old established farm with productive soil types and the attraction of having access to the mains scheme water pipeline.
Elders Real Estate declined to comment as to the identity of the buyer or their intentions.
Kinross is well located on the Kojonup-Katanning Road about 15km east of Kojonup and 25km west of Katanning.
It has a mix of soils that, with an annual rainfall of about 500mm, is well suited to growing canola, cereals, and lupins, along with livestock.
It is 416ha with independent mapping showing an arable area of 343ha.
Elders Real Estate Northam representative Fred Hill has three properties that were put under offer during spring and will settle in February 2024.
He declined to reveal the prices or buyers.
Yorkdale is prime farm land, comprising seven contiguous lots divided into north and south portions by Quellington Road.
This 804ha property is 8km south of Meckering and has predominantly fertile red and grey loam soils, with some loamy sand over yellowish clay.
It is renowned for its ability to support a wide range of crops and pastures and has a very reliable water supply from two scheme water meters plus a dam, soak and bore.
Yorkdale was sold with a spacious five-bedroom, two-bathroom home and other infrastructure including a fertiliser shed, powered workshop and three-stand shearing shed with sheep yards.
Hammonds Hill is a quality mixed farming enterprise at Quairading spanning 758.4ha.
It was ideally suited to buyers looking to expand their holdings with a farm that could be efficiently operated at a distance to a home property.
It has convenient road access and internal laneways that further enhance its functionality and accessibility.
The bulk of this farm land consists of high quality heavy and loamy red soils with some areas of gravelly loam.
Hammonds Hill has been conservatively cropped and well fenced and has impressive stands of Santiago medic and sub-clovers across the farm.
Most improvements are modern and well designed, and include a four-stand shearing shed and galvanised steel sheep yards, machinery shed, four Moylan grain silos plus a workshop.
Quartermaines at Buckland in the Avon Valley covers 176ha of prime rural land just 11km from Northam.
It has rich and productive read loam soils that are ideal for a range of agriculture pursuits.
Close on the heels of their purchase of prominent New South Wales cropping and grazing spread, Jemalong Station, Canada's Alberta Investment Management Corporation and Sydney-based New Agriculture teamed up again, buying a swag of Kimberley cattle properties through LAWD.
The partnership's new three million hectare Kimberley cattle portfolio in north western WA involves seven leases and five sub-leases operated by the Argyle Cattle Company and Yougawalla Pastoral Company, plus agistment country.
With the exception of Argyle's Shamrock station, which is also developing a 42 hectare centre pivot irrigation areas, the combined large-scale beef business is based around Halls Creek.
It was bought after being offered for public tender by key Chinese-backed investor, Archstone Investment Group.
The AIMCo-New Agriculture partnership is best known as the owner and manager of the huge Lawson Grains portfolio of properties spread from Moree in northern NSW to Esperance and Wongan Hills in WA, bought for about $550m early last year from Macquarie Bank.
Lawson Grains has since grown to 11 expanding aggregations, having paid $35m for Green Park in southern NSW early this year and about $85m for the Lachlan Valley's 13,500ha Jemalong Station in August.
Jemalong was previously the prized possession of the Kahlbetzer family's Twynam Agriculture, bought by Dutch investment group Optifarm in 2018.
The Kimberley cattle breeding and backgrounding portfolio purchase will be AIMCo's first investment in the pastoral industry, although the deal is subject to federal and WA government regulatory approvals.
The operation has been sold by the Hong Kong-based Hui family which, through its Archstone group, bought Bulka, Yougawalla and Margaret River stations in 2017 from media marketer Harold Mitchell, with large cattle herds.
The Argyle assets, Beefood Park, Moola Bulla, Mt Amhurst and Shamrock stations were added later.
Kimberley's new owner AIMCo is one of Canada's largest institutional investment managers, investing globally on behalf of pension, endowment and government funds in the Province of Alberta.
It has a lengthy record of investing in property in Australia, initially in forestry country.
Its local partner and investment manager, New Agriculture, was established to manage Lawson Grains and to build a trans-Tasman portfolio of agriculture assets for its parent, New Forests.
The local, 18-year-old New Forests is the investment manager for a global portfolio of nature-based real assets.
AIMCo's head of infrastructure and renewable resources Ben Hawkins said the Kimberley cattle business was an established and well-managed asset which offered important diversification for the pension fund's client portfolios.
As part of the agreement, Haydn and Jane Sale will be retained as managers of the Kimberley portfolio.
New Agriculture expected regulatory approval for the sale to be finalised in the first half of next year.
Financial details of the transaction are confidential.
Staying in the north of the State, Elders Real Estate representative Greg Smith sold Christmas Creek station in the Kimberley during the second half of this year and he will have three stations coming to market in early 2024.
Christmas Creek sold for an undisclosed sum to renowned beef producers Manchee Agriculture in that company's first station purchase in WA.
The property was marketed by Elders Real Estate during Christmas and January 2023 for sale by expressions of interest in a two-stage process.
Nine buyers were identified, but those that were short-listed were held up from inspecting Christmas Creek until late February due to the flooding in the Kimberley.
Mr Smith said five parties from across Australia made it to the second stage of inspection when conditions dried out - and that part of the process finished in March.
Three parties were then in the race but Mr Smith said Manchee Agriculture, based in north west NSW, was the preferred candidate at the end of the day.
An informal agreement was reached with them and the vendor Lawson Klopper - who is retiring after 35 years on the station - and it is now formalised," Mr Smith said.
"Settlement is anticipated when (the) lands minister consents to the transfer.
"The successful buyers have a long history of cattle production on the east coast and own the oldest registered Shorthorn beef herd in Australia.
"They are a family-owned and run agricultural company that has been producing beef since the 1880s."
Manchee Agriculture runs cattle on properties spanning about 8094ha at Narrabri, in NSW, and Roma, in Queensland.
It has a family history of sustainable land use, with the view the current generation are the caretakers of the land for the next generation.
It is understood Manchee Agriculture will continue with its core business of running cattle on Christmas Creek, although future carbon opportunities couldn't be discounted, Mr Smith said.
The Christmas Creek lease has an ideal mix of breeding and fattening land.
