Carbon farming entities compete in the tightly-held Monaro

By Shannon Fergusson , McGrath Cooma

A two-pronged property market is emerging in one of the most tightly-held regions of NSW with the recent entry of corporate carbon farming entities competing for Monaro farmland.

Properties of a large size and scale don’t hit the market all that often in the Monaro so it was with great interest that we witnessed two sales of large grazing properties earlier this year to carbon farming and offsetting operations.

Big carbon farming businesses have been attracted to the size and quality of land that has traditionally been favoured for grazing and wool production and have been the main parties interested in anything of large scale to hit the market in recent times.

This is driving up demand for those rare, larger properties which only hit the market half a dozen times a year.

But the interest from carbon outfits comes at a time when farmers are not operating in the property market, especially at the larger end, and have been waiting for all the agricultural fundamentals to improve.

Instability in livestock markets and higher interest rates has seen a revision of what grazing farmers are prepared to pay for large scale farming enterprises and traditional grazing operators are sitting tight.

But carbon farming investors are taking the chance to be an alternate player.

They’re picked the right time to get a foot in the door in the Monaro and realise some of the new opportunities offered by carbon markets, and there is no doubt there is growing demand and competition among those types of operators.

This is why we’re seeing the two-pronged market appearing, and it will be interesting to watch what impact this has on the Monaro and broader rural property market for traditional grazing landowners, or those wishing to buy land for grazing, over the next year or so.

In the meantime, farmers will need to see further signs of stability in our commodity markets before they step back into the property market, which is mostly fairly subdued during our winter months anyway.