20 Aug 2008

Rural property market slows slightly

8:40 pm on 20 August 2008

Farm sales and prices have eased after months of record highs.

The Real Estate Institute says 110 fewer farms were sold in the three months to July compared with the three months to June.

The national median price dipped slightly to $1.8 million for the three months to July - but was still more than 40% higher than a year ago.

It is still up 41.7% over the July 2007 national median farm price of $1.27 milion.

The institute says there has also been a slight cooling in the market for dairy farms, but demand still exceeds supply.

The national dairy median price to July was $4.2 million - 32.8% higher than the July 2007 figure of $3.16 million.

However, the lifestyle property market is also showing signs of weakening a little after looking quite resilient.

The median lifestyle price was down $5000 between the three months to June and the three months to July, finishing at $455,000.