A REPORT released last week shows people aren’t just looking for a tree change – they’re looking to take it to the farm.
The report, released by Rural Bank, showed year-on-year property prices had risen 31.3% per hectare in Queensland, second only to Western Australia.
And while there aren’t too many “farms” left in the Logan area, No Nonsense Real Estate principal Wendy Thomas, based in Jimboomba, said any acreage or hobby farm was snapped up in a heart-beat.
“If there’s anything with horse facilities on the market, bang, they’re gone,” she said.
Ms Thomas said people were farming goats, alpacas and deer on hobby farms in the local region, in an effort to immerse themselves in the country lifestyle.
“But if we’re talking real farms, they’re anything more than 50 hectares, and there just aren’t many of those around any more,” she said.
“Any large pieces of land, depending on local development laws, are being sub-divided and becoming smaller blocks.”
That was being seen particularly in Chambers Flat, Jimboomba and South Maclean.
She said people with a love for horses were finding agistment costs could be expensive, and were consequently more happy to look for larger blocks of land where they could live near their four-legged friends.
“It’s a good lifestyle, but the properties are becoming rarer to find. So I understand that the costs are rising,” Ms Thomas said.
The report released last week also shows that the volume of farms being sold in Queensland was higher than in other states, with a 35% growth over the past 12 months.
“In the last two years, the number of transactions has increased by 40.3% to fully recover from the drought-induced record low of 2019 taking the number of transactions to its highest level since 2007,” it said.
It said the financial markets were currently factoring in roughly five interest rate hikes this year and at least another five next year, “although this pricing assumes that inflationary pressures will remain intact for longer than the RBA have recently forecast.”
“A more benign outcome (which would have less impact on property values) would be an official cash rate of around 1% by year end, and 2%Â by the end of 2023.
“Higher interest rates have the potential to reduce buying power and take some heat out of the market by softening demand.”
