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#045 - While Property Crashes, Cattle Stations Hit Record Prices · Dollars In The Dirt

• 0:00
  Everyone was talking about the Australian property market crashing. You turn on the news.
• 0:04
  It's all about interest rate pressure, mortgage stress and residential housing bubbles bursting.
• 0:08
  But out in the paddock it's a completely different story. The beef cattle station market
• 0:12
  isn't crashing. In fact, it's as strong as it ever. With record breaking sales happening right now.
• 0:18
  After helping hundreds of farmers secure over $1 billion in finance, I can tell you exactly what
• 0:23
  agricultural land is defying the residential downturn and what this means for a grazing
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  business. So in this video, I'm going to break down why cattle station market is booming, what's
• 0:33
  driving it, and how you can position your farm to take advantage of it. Let's start by looking at
• 0:37
  what actually is happening in the market. Well, city investors are sweating over their
• 0:40
  residential portfolios. The rural property market, particularly for beef cattle station, has ended
• 0:45
  the year with a massive bang. And we're seeing sales that are rewriting the record books. Take a
• 0:51
  look at the beetle aggregation in the Northern Territory, for example. It recently sold for over
• 0:55
  $300 million. That is the largest pastoral transaction in Australian history. And then you
• 1:01
  look at the New England region in New South Wales, where the McPhee Bee Farms went for more than
• 1:05
  $150 million, making it the biggest cattle property transaction of the year. And it's not
• 1:11
  just an isolated mega deal. We're seeing high net worth individuals like Gina Rinehart pouring
• 1:16
  hundreds of millions of dollars into agricultural assets, securing massive holdings across New South
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  Wales and Queensland. In 2025 alone, she spent over $270 million buying four separate
• 1:28
  properties totalling more than 32,000 hectares. And that is not the behaviour of someone who
• 1:34
  thinks the market is about to fall off a cliff in Queensland's central west. Property valuers are
• 1:39
  calling it a year of record value levels. Prices have lifted between 10 to 20% above previous
• 1:45
  levels and country south of Longreach, they were sitting at about 2.70 to $280. An acre has pushed
• 1:51
  through the $300 barrier. We're seeing adult equivalent rates spiking to $10,000 in places
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  like Barcaldine and in the Central Highlands country, is transacting at 11,500 to 15,000 per
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  adult equivalent. Queensland farmland recorded a 10.6% annual growth in 2025, the highest of
• 2:10
  any state in the country, and this isn't a market in decline. This is a market with serious momentum.
• 2:15
  So why the massive disconnect between residential properties and agricultural land? The key
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  difference is how the land is valued. Residential property is driven by speculative investments,
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  population growth, proximity to city centres. It's highly sensitive to interest rate hikes because
• 2:32
  most buyers will less stretch to their borrowing limits when the reserve Bank moves rates. Mortgage
• 2:37
  holders feel it immediately and buyers confidence drops. Cattle stations, on the other hand, are
• 2:42
  viewed on their productivity. It's not just about the dirt, it's about the carrying capacity. It's
• 2:47
  about the adult equivalent rates. And when a serious buyer looks at a station, they're not
• 2:51
  thinking about the capital gains in five years. They're calculating how many cattle it can run,
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  the cost of production, what it looks like and what the returns on investment will be over a 20
• 3:01
  or 30 year horizon because global demand for beef remains strong, particularly in export markets
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  like the US and Asia. The underlying commodity underpins the land value. You're not buying a
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  place to live. You're buying a productive business with a proven income stream. And this is
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  fundamentally the difference in the asset classes. And that's why the same headwinds that are
• 3:22
  hurting residential investors are barely touching the agricultural property market. And this brings
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  me to the second point. The top driving the market. The people buying these multi-million dollar
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  stations on your average mum and dad investors trying to negatively gear a duplex in the suburbs.
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  They are institutional funds, corporate agricultural companies and ultra high net worth
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  individuals. New forests are Japanese backed. Global fund manager paid over 150 million for the
• 3:49
  McPhee Bee Farms in New South Wales. These buyers have deep pockets and long investment horizons.
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  They aren't relying on the standard residential mortgage, so they aren't feeling the same pinch
• 4:00
  from the RBA when it makes a decision. They're looking for long term, secure assets that provide
• 4:06
  a hedge against inflation, and agricultural land fits the bill perfectly. When global capital is
• 4:12
  looking for somewhere safe and productive to park itself, beef cattle stations in Queensland, New
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  South Wales, will they keep coming up with the answers? The institutional demand is a powerful
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  floor under the prices, and it means that even if domestic produced demand softens temporarily,
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  there is a deep pool of well-capitalized buyers ready to step in. And before we get into what this
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  means for your operation, I want to take a quick pause. If you're looking at purchasing a property,
• 4:39
  expanding your herd, or just want to make sure your current finance structure is working for you,
• 4:43
  book a free call with me. I specialise in helping graziers like you get the right loan structures
• 4:49
  that fit your unique goals. The links in the description. All right, let's talk about the supply
• 4:54
  and demand. This is the third reason the cattle station market is so strong. It's probably the
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  most important one. There is a fundamental scarcity of quality grazing land in Australia.
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  They aren't making any more of it. And unlike residential property where developers can build
• 5:09
  new supply to meet the demand, you cannot create a new cattle country. The land is finite.
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  Furthermore, generational holdings rarely come to the market. Many of these properties have been
• 5:20
  held by the same families for 50, 60, 70 years, and when a premium, well-developed cattle station
• 5:26
  doesn't get listed, there is fair competition for it. Agents will tell you that the number of
• 5:31
  registered bidders on rural properties has been increasing year on year. We are also in a herd
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  rebuild phase after years of drought driven by destocking. Australian cattle numbers are
• 5:41
  rebuilding and to run more cattle, you need more land. And this domestic demand from existing
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  producers wanting to scale up their operation, combined with the influx of corporate capital
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  from outside the industry, creates a highly competitive buying environment, and it's a classic
• 5:56
  case of demand chasing, very limited supply, which naturally drives prices up. And there's no sign of
• 6:03
  that dynamic changing anytime soon. The fourth reason is how agriculture finance works compared
• 6:09
  to residential lending. AG lending is fundamentally different, and this difference makes
• 6:14
  a lot right now, when a banker assesses a residential mortgage, they're primarily looking at
• 6:19
  the borrower's income relative to the loan size and the property's market value. When interest
• 6:24
  rates rise, serviceability drops, lending tightens, and prices fall. When a bank assesses an
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  agricultural loan, they're looking at your productive capacity of the farm. They're looking
• 6:34
  at your management history, your herd records, your cash flow projections, and the long term income
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  potential of the land. They structure loans differently, often with longer terms, interest only
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  periods, and seasonal repayment options that account for the cyclical nature of the farming
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  income. The metrics are different, and so the sensitivity to interest rate movements is
• 6:56
  different because the fundamentals of the beef industry remain solid. The strong cattle prices
• 7:02
  and robust export demand. Banks are still willing to lend to good operators. They know that a
• 7:08
  well-managed cattle station is a resilient, income producing asset. This continued access to capital
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  for strong producers helps keep the property market buoyant in a way that the residential
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  market simply isn't experiencing right now. This brings me to the fifth and most important point
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  what this all means for you and what you should be doing right now to position your operation to
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  take advantage of this strong market. First, understand the equity position you're actually
• 7:35
  sitting on. If you're holding off on making business decisions because you've been reading
• 7:40
  the same doom and gloom property headlines as everyone else. You need to separate the city
• 7:45
  narrative from the rural reality. You'll land this highly sought after productive asset and
• 7:50
  Queensland farmland grew 10.6% in the value in the last year. That equity is real and it can be
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  put to work. Second, if you're looking to expand and buy more land, you need to be prepared well in
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  advance. You're competing in a strong market against buyers with serious capital and
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  professional advisory teams. You can't just rock up to a bank with a handshake and a rough idea of
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  what you want to buy. You need your financials in perfect order. You need your heard records up to
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  date and present it properly. And you need a clear business plan that shows exactly to the lender
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  how the new property fits your operation and how your service the debt. And critically, you need
• 8:27
  your finance pre-approved and structured correctly before you even start looking at
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  properties in a competitive market. A pre-approved borrower moves faster and negotiates from a
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  stronger position. Thirdly, think about whether your current debt structure is actually set up to
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  support growth. A lot of producers are sitting on loans that made sense five years ago but aren't
• 8:48
  optimal today. Maybe the interest rate isn't competitive. Maybe the repayment structure doesn't
• 8:53
  match your cash flow cycle. Or maybe you've built up equity that could be unlocked to fund
• 8:57
  expansion. If you haven't had a proper review of your finance in the last 12 months. Now's the time
• 9:02
  to do it. The market is moving fast, and the producers who are winning are the ones who have
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  their finance sorted before the opportunity arrives, and not after. The cattle station market
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  isn't crashing, it's evolving and it's becoming more professional, more competitive and more
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  valuable. The buyers coming into the market are, well, sophisticated and well resourced to compete.
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  You need to bring the same level of professionalism to your finance strategy that you
• 9:26
  bring to your herd management. If you want to make sure you've positioned to thrive in this market,
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  whether that's unlocking your existing equity, structuring your loan for a new purchase, or just
• 9:35
  getting a clear picture on where you stand. Book a free call with me. I've helped hundreds of farmers
• 9:40
  navigate these exact challenges and secure the finance they need to grow. The links in the
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  description. Thanks for listening. I'm Brecken Curtis and I'll catch you in the next episode.