Research conducted by leading commercial real estate company, Colliers International has shown that the drought did not have any substantial negative impact on the number of property transactions for rural properties worth over $5 million. The data shows that sales peaked in 2016 and have remained relatively high in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, the total value of deals on agribusiness properties in the $5 million plus bracket was $3.34 billion and had three extra deals settled in 2018 as intended, rather than 2019, the total would have exceeded the 2016 record.
According to Colliers research, despite some discrepancies between the States there was no overall negative impact of the drought on total national expenditure on land. The agribusiness investment market now has a very diversified groups of participants, which includes neighbouring farmers, overseas agribusiness firms, institutional and private investors. The data suggests that despite the severe weather conditions, agribusiness continues to provide a strong economic environment for property investment.
