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Farm Real Estate has collected Victorian farm sales results and discussed issues with a number of rural real estate agents since 2000 who knows what makes the industry tick.
We have got to know the credible agents who are the best equipped to help farmers and rural property buyers locate suitable country properties.
Reading about their experiences in and their observations of the Victorian farm real estate industry is an education money can’t buy.
So now farmrealestate will post stories of credible rural agents so you can use their valuable insights to help you buy or sell rural or farm land in Victoria’s country property market.
Following is a story of another experienced and credible Victorian farm real estate agent that www.farmrealestate.com.au can vouch for because they serve their community with dedication.
Nick McIntyre was destined to sell soil
Nick McIntyre was destined to be a rural real estate agent (pictured above at Warracknabeal).
Rural realestate is a given in the McIntyre family pedigree where both his grandfather and father were rural real estate agents.
As it has turned out besides Nick his brothers, Simon and Shane, are also long serving rural real estate agents who help farmers buy and sell land. (You can read more about Victorian land values and other dedicated rural real estate agents at Rural agents who make Victorian farm sales tick over.)
Young Nick’s father Ron, worked as a Dalgety’s stock agent, selling livestock but the business had an associated real estate licence.
So when Nick was 23 he went to Rodwells in Bendigo to begin his real estate profession. Then he had a stint in metropolitan Carlton with Nelson Alexander.
The big smoke and rear vision mirrors
Melbourne is a place he likes to see in his rear vision mirror so after many lessons in a busy city real estate market Nick left to work in Horsham.
He worked with First National in Horsham until 1994 when he returned to work for his father at Wimmera Mallee Real Estate in Minyip.
By 1999 his Nick was in charge. Then in 2005 the Elders Ltd offered him a contract to join its property division.
Since he joined he has listed farms from a Warracknabeal agency in Victoria’s renowned north west cropping and cereal growing districts.
His innate knowledge of cropping land has made him an essential contact for savvy clients buying broadacre farms in the western Wimmera and Mallee regions.
Yarriambiack Shire’s municipal boundary defines the majority of Nick’s sales area. This includes towns and districts around Warracknabeal, Donald, Hopetoun, Yapeet, Birchip, Minyip, Dimboola and Rupanyup.
Historically the crops grown in Nick’s sales area used cereals and legume rotations coupled with grazing sheep or fallowing land with chemicals.
Now the rotation mix also involves growing chick peas, canola and fat lamb production.
New technology means new sales seasons
Traditionally spring to autumn was the time most of Nick’s listings materialised once harvesting was completed. This routine has changed in the last few years to listing farms all year round, sometimes with crops given in.
“About 15 to 20 years ago we listed most of our properties from November to autumn,” he says.
Then cropping machines and equipment got more precise so lighter soil country and lower annual average rainfall land became viable to crop.
What influences the price per acre for land in Nick’s sales area is the annual average rainfall total and soil types.
“The higher the (annual average) rainfall and the better the quality of the soil the more (buyers) are prepared to pay,” Nick says.
Crop land values have doubled since 2015
And Nick has witnessed phenomenal rises in land values since 2015.
“Since 2015 I have seen examples of land values doubled and doubled again,” Nick said.
“(In 2015) the top price per acre was $1400.
“In 2016 I was selling land for between $2500 an acre to $3000. In another 18 months from then I was selling it for $5000 an acre and now it is up to $6000.”
