The big question at the moment is: How much is your farm worth?  Jamie Mackay asked the man who should know about these things - Peter Newbold, General Manager of PGG Wrightson Real Estate.  Jamie contends that farm prices are being underpinned by forestry/carbon farming.  Peter agrees with this assessment.  There's a lot of demand, especially if you add investors and traditional farmers to the buyers interested in the forestry side.  The demand is there and values are strong.  The forestry people are prepared to pay a premium to get what they want.  It's definitely good for vendors.  Opinion is divided on how good it is for New Zealanders in the long term.  Which begs the question: Are any of the more extensive sheep and beef properties coming on the market going back to sheep and beef?  Or are they all going to forestry?  According to Peter, basically all are going to forestry, although some properties are devoting just a portion of their land to forestry. 

Jamie remarked that there's a lot of interest in support blocks right now.  There's a rumour doing the rounds that the most expensive farm sale recently in Canterbury or Mid Canterbury wasn't a dairy farm or some high value cropping land.  It was for a support block.  Peter says the demand is there because of huge interest from farmers seeking to increase their holdings, along with other investors seeking to get into the market.  Not a lot of properties in areas like Canterbury come to the market so vendors are getting strong values.

Jamie turns to dairy farm sales.  Peter thinks there will be more dairy farm activity this year - slightly better than last year.  The only challenge is large dairy farms.  When larger farms could sell for twenty, thirty or even forty million dollars, the buyer pool is limited and both parties need to be operating in the same space.

When it comes to horticulture, kiwi fruit farms have been fetching record prices.  Some kiwi fruit properties in the Bay Of Plenty have been selling for up to two million dollars per canopy hectare.  Peter reckons values will stay strong with the number of listings building up earlier than last year.
As far as lifestyle blocks are concerned, Peter offers a contrary view to most commentators.  He says the strong demand for lifestyle blocks will stay.  

With the cost of building rising, people will be drawn to properties in provincial New Zealand which are relatively new.  That will maintain demand and values.