Multimillion-dollar price for Australia’s biggest land sale

One of Australia’s biggest arable farms, extending to 200,000ha, has been put up for sale with a price tag of between $75m (£41m) and $85m (£47m).

The complete farming portfolio belongs to Western Australia grain giant John Nicoletti who has decided to retire from grain farming, aged 64.

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It is the biggest offering of a single parcel of farmland ever to be sold in Australia and is being handled by sales agency CBRE.

Included in the sale are 76,575ha of freehold land, plus 127,018ha of leasehold land, spread across 30 farms in the state.

The sale also includes a flock of more than 50,000 merino ewes plus progeny, and an extensive list of near-new equipment, including 14 headers, 12 seeders, seven sprayers and 20 tractors.

A 15,000t vertical grain store is also included in the sale.

Lots of money

“I feel the time is right to exit farming,” said Mr Nicoletti. “Having spoken to a number of people around the globe, the conclusion is there is a lot of money to deploy to agriculture now.”

Mr Nicoletti says planting will go ahead as normal this year, setting the crops up for a new buyer.

Although he is intending to exit from farming, Mr Nicoletti wants to spend more time at his John Deere dealerships.

“I have 110 people working at my six John Deere dealerships and the headquarters in Perth. I want to give that side of the business more attention.”

According to sales agent Danny Thomas of CBRE, “this is a unique offering of scale for mixed farming in Australia”.

“At over 200,000ha, this is a world-class asset offering an incoming purchaser the ability to optimise operations and influence price, whilst stepping into a genuine going-concern complete with experienced personnel.”