A PUBLIC auction of farmland in Westonia showed that demand for rural farmland was still strong in Western Australia.
An interested 70 people gathered at Wanderers Stadium, Westonia, recently to witness the Elders Real Estate auction for Sandford View Farms.
Elders Real Estate agent Will Morris said it was an extremely good result atnd reinforced the high demand for rural property at the moment.
"It was massive, absolutely massive," Mr Morris said.
"There hasn't been a land or a farm auction held out in Westonia for some time.
"Everyone turned up for a look, there were plenty of people to support it."
Out of the four parcels, two were sold under the hammer, one was sold five minutes after the auction finished and negotiations are underway for the final parcel - the process is predicted to be finalised by the end of this week.
The Home Farm block sold at auction for $2.27m and consisted of 1411.18 hectares of land, divided into 17 paddocks and watered by six dams.
There was a mix of strong red clay loams to medium sand over gravel, and the total arable area was about 1287ha.
A block of land, Guests, sold at auction for $450,000 and consisted of 424.21ha of land, divided into seven paddocks and watered by two dams.
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It has a mix of medium sandy gravel and loams to stronger red clay, and the arable area was about 368ha.
The land was purchased by neighbouring farmers, so they are "all locals, and young farmers", Mr Morris said.
"It's good for farming families to continue - with one exiting and another getting to secure land," he said.
The owners are retiring from farming and moving to the coast, and Mr Morris said they were extremely pleased with the result.
"Some of the auction process took a while, there's some lengthy bids that took a long time - and a bit of competition - so auctions that take a while can be stressful, but entertaining," Mr Morris said.
"It was a good result, they were very, very happy.
"And everyone enjoyed a couple of quiet drinks afterwards to celebrate."
According to Elders Real Estate senior rural real estate executive Simon Cheetham, Elders held a few farm auctions each year, and tended to offer more farms for sale by auction than other agencies.
"The decision to go to auction or use another method of sale is always made with the sellers of the property, and takes into consideration demand for a particular property, the time of year and the size or type of property being offered," Mr Cheetham said.
"Auction remains a very effective method of sale in the right circumstances."
This result reinforces the strength of the rural property market, Mr Morris said.
"I think our market is continuing to be strong," he said.
"We are having a short supply of available land, and at the moment, commodity prices are strong and people are coming off the back of a few reasonable years.
"I think that the appetite for agriculture and farmland is just going to continue to remain strong.
"The prices have jumped up quite significantly, but I expect them to hold or continue to increase over time."
