A LARGE crowd of more than 80 people gathered to see a highly productive farm at Boyup Brook go under the hammer recently, which ended up selling for a record price.
Lauderdale was purchased by neighbouring farmers Wayde and Emma Robertson, from vendors Peter and Lyn Jennings.
Elders rural real estate specialist Adrian Corker steered the marketing campaign and said the sale price of $2.75 million exceeded his expectations.
Measuring 552 hectares, the sale equates to about $4982 per hectare.
"The property sold well above the reserve and this has probably set a new record price for farming land in the Boyup Brook shire," Mr Corker said.
"In a tightly held area it is very hard for farmers to expand, which is what the losing bidder (also a neighbouring farmer) said.
"This is a good farming area that doesn't transact very often.
"Both the sellers and buyers walked away happy so it was a great result."
Elders auctioneer Don Fry commenced the auction by accepting an opening bid of $1.8m.
Additional bids were made in $100,000 increments once the price reached $2.5m, then $50,000 bids were accepted.
At $2.7m Lauderdale was officially declared on the market, then another two bids led to Mr Fry knocking his gavel down at $2.75m.
The auction lasted about 20 minutes.
Mr Corker, who services the Boyup Brook, Arthur River and Kojonup shires, said it was not often that quality properties came on the market in the Boyup Brook region and when they do, they generate a lot of interest, which was the case with Lauderdale.
"I received a lot of enquiries prior to the auction - I had about 15 inspections, which is quite a lot for a short marketing period of four weeks," he said.
Having been selling rural real estate for 29 years, Mr Corker said it had been about two decades since he had seen the market so strong.
"The last time land values were this strong was when the tree market was operating at full strength, which was in the late 1990s/early 2000s," he said.
With prices being good for most commodities, Mr Corker said farmers have a strong appetite for expanding.
But limited listings available has meant properties either don't stay on the market for long or are sold for a premium price.
He said there was interest from farming families wanting to expand and also investors seeking to purchase and lease properties to local operators.
The new owners, Wayde and Emma Robertson, with baby son Henry, have previously farmed with Mr Robertson's parents, Grant and Helen, at Yalup.
The family farms a 2833ha property as a 70:30 livestock and cropping operation, with more than 7000 Merinos run each year.
Lauderdale was marketed as being a top sheep producing property, with good water supply and quality infrastructure.