Senior director at LAWD, Col Medway, discusses preparing rural properties for sale, emphasising early planning and data-rich presentations.
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00:00Hello, welcome back to AgriCast, Kirsten Dipprose here.
00:10And to take a look at rural property, we have Cole Medway, who is the Senior Director at
00:15Lorde.
00:16Now's the time that people are really starting to think about next year, and perhaps they're
00:20thinking about selling a property.
00:22What are the sorts of things you should be thinking about in preparation for that?
00:27Well, the first thing I'd say is you can't start too early.
00:30Too many times I think we get approached by vendors in, say, September saying, Cole, I'd
00:35like to sell my farm this spring.
00:37It'd be nice to get that phone call probably back in March and April, because at that time
00:41it takes a fair bit to get a property well presented for sale.
00:45That's both physically and probably with regard to amassing the data on the asset.
00:50And I think the earlier you start, you're much better prepared to get the best possible
00:55result.
00:56Is that a decision for people who are purchasing as well?
00:58It's generally not something that moves quickly, is that fair to say?
01:03Depending on the complexity of the asset, the due diligence process that buyers go through
01:08can be quite extensive, especially probably the more complicated assets of horticultural
01:12assets, more complicated irrigation properties, probably more than a standard dryland farming
01:18or grazing property.
01:19And a lot of that work revolves around collating the production history of the property in
01:25order to be able to provide a really good information memorandum or data pack to provide
01:30to buyers in order for them to consider your property.
01:33What are buyers looking for when they're considering a property to buy?
01:37I think the best properties that are presented to buyers and the ones that buyers respond
01:42to the best is data-rich assets, assets that go to market with an extensive suite of information
01:50about the historical production capacity of the property, such as stocking rates, yields,
01:55fertiliser applications and recent capex that's been expended on the property.
02:00All of those sorts of things give a buyer a really good understanding of the asset.
02:04And if they don't have any gaps in knowledge, then they have no reason to apply a discount.
02:09You mentioned spring being one of those traditional times that people think that's when you want
02:14to put the property up, but is there actually a preferred time in your view?
02:19Well, traditionally, yes, spring's been the popular time to take a property to market,
02:23mainly because people think the property looks at its best.
02:26It's a double-edged sword.
02:27Look, there's more competition, there's more properties in the market during spring.
02:31Other times of the year, it depends on the type of asset, because you'd want to be in
02:35the market very early in the new year if you want to get a property sold in order for a
02:39purchaser to be able to implement their cropping program for the coming season.
02:44Obviously, with the summer and winter cropping regions, there's no time.
02:49There's always a transition between crops, which is a lot shorter than maybe as you move
02:53south in the more Mediterranean markets.
02:55Really, I don't think there is any set time.
02:57The principles of how you take the property to market in regard to having good data, that
03:01remains unchanged.
03:02Now, finally, what's your property of the week?
03:05You've got something from Wagga Wagga, I believe.
03:07Probably called Waltula.
03:08It's 1,029 hectares just on the outskirts of Wagga on the Murrumbidgee River, on the
03:14high side of the river.
03:15So it's flood-protected.
03:16There's 155 megalitres of mid-Murrumbidgee groundwater, 304 hectares of spray irrigation
03:23under pivots.
03:24The vendor itself has spent over $5 million in the last four years developing this property
03:29and upgrading the irrigation infrastructure, including two new bores.
03:33So it is a true turnkey operation.
03:37Colm Medway, Senior Director of Lorde, thank you so much for joining us on AgriCast.