The Country 17/04/25: Peter Newbold talks to Jamie Mackay

The GM of PGG Wrightson Real Estate takes his monthly look at the rural market.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Monthly here on the country we have a look at
the state of the rural landmarket. How much is your
farm worth? Can you sell one? At the moment? Peter
Newboulders the GM of PGG rights in real estate, and
Peter from the Highs the COVID frenzy. I think of
what twenty one, twenty two or round about there to
the lows of the last couple of years, and now

(00:21):
we're starting to see the rural markets take off again.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, look, there's a clear sign if I go back,
you know that's sort of sixteen through to twenty twenty.
You know, we're sort of averaging around four billion, and
then twenty twenty one it just dropped off a cliff
to about two billion, and then twenty two we had
that big boost, went up to four and a half
and now we're sitting roughly just under three billion. So

(00:48):
to me, that sends a clear signal that things are
on the move, which is really positive. And just to
give your listeners a comparison, the lifestyle market sits at
about six billion and at its peak was ten billion,
so you can see the rural market is a small marketplace,
but you know, small moves. We're seeing at the moment

(01:11):
is really encouraging. And I think we're seeing that coming
through at the moment where the sales are any strong.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, A lifestyle a lifestyle market that was worth ten
billion at the COVID peak. That's Peter. That's a lot
of productive land that's got houses and horses on it.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, look when you look around now you look at
all these well moving out from the big metropolitans, but
even provincial New Zealand, there's a lot of lifestyle blocks. Also,
what you'll see too is a lot of more of
these smaller fifty hectare sort of what i'd call grazing blocks,
and again there's demand for those. But definitely if you
look around some of these larger provincial towns, now there's

(01:53):
a lot of lifestyle activity, which creates a whole lot
of other demands. But yeah, definitely it has. It's had
an impact in some areas. But again I look at
rural and it's moving in the direct direction, which is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well, let's look at the biggest market, the dairy sect.
How's it going there? The dairy farmers are going to
get ten bucks or better this year. I'm imagining when
the corporate starts sniffing around again. There's got to be
interested in it.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh, there is interesting, and there's a lot of players
now looking at it. I guess we go into this
period where the dairy slows off a bit, and we're
probably seeing a lot more momentum at this time of
the year, more than normal in that sheep and beef
and grazing area. So that's still strong. The dairy thing,
I think will come into play again as we come
into the spring area, but there's a lot of players

(02:41):
interested in that. And I think the other thing that
is noticeable. There a lot of paidback, a lot of debt,
so there'll be a lot more cash available, and I
think we're going to see that stimulate sales not only
in dairy but in our whole sheep and beef marketplace.
So I think we're going to have a pretty so spring,
and depending on the weather in the winter, we might

(03:03):
see more activity there too.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Let's have a look at horticulture. What's happening there.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Queue fruit and that side of it is good. Gogh
culture is quiet for all those reasons we know, but
definitely if you look up in that bigger Kiwi fruit area,
We've seen a lot more activity, there's more interest, and
I think that's a good thing. After you look, has
probably been quiet for two or three years.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
As you know, you also not only run the real
estate division, Peter and Newbold, you're in charge of the
livestock division.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Now.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I think one of the great stories out of farming
this season has been the renaissance of red meat. Not
so much beef. It's been good, but certainly lamb and mutton.
Are we seeing that reflected in the interest in those
properties you mentioned the interest in sheep and beef and
grazing properties.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh, look, definitely. You know, if you look at a
traditional sheep and beef farmer, if you go back a
couple of years or even up into the until this
season has been really tough, and now we're starting to
see really good prices in sheep and also cattle. I
think it'll be fair to say in some parts of
the country where we're scraping to find stock for people.

(04:14):
So that's a really good thing. It's good for those
all those farmers. Suddenly they're going to get a good return,
some will pay back debt, put them back into a
profitable position. You know, it's really healthy and that is
and it will stimulate more sales in that sector. And
when you combine that with the dairy side, you know,
rural New Zealand hasn't looked so good for a long

(04:36):
long time in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
So the livestock division at PGG Rights and Will have
had a bit of a roiler.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, we've had a fantastic year and that's really good.
And I must admit it's nice operating in both businesses.
But you know, the livestock world, she's an interesting place
and we have some wonderful characters in that in that
business of ours.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And we also chat to those guys on a monthly
basis as well. Look, Peter Newbold, thanks for some of
your time wearing your real estate and livestock hat out
of PGG Rights and I hope you have a RESTful
Easter weekend. Don't eat too many Easter eggs.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
No, thank you, Jamie. Likewise, you ever got Easter