PROPERTY sale records continue to be broken across the State, with Paul Thomason from Nutrien Harcourts WA the latest to smash the previous benchmark in the Coomalbidgup area.
People from across the region attended the auction for the K-Cee Ridge property last Friday, at the Esperance Bay Yacht Club, to see the local going property rate.
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With nine registered buyers, and four consistently bidding, it was evident that the property was highly desired.
It sold for $6.7 million - $12,594 an arable hectare ($5100 per arable acre).
The successful buyers were Peter and Stacey Vermeersch, who planned to expand their existing farm.
"They were looking for more country to be able to keep their succession moving forward, as they have a lot of family on the farm," Mr Thomason said.
The Vermeerschs had been searching for a suitable property for a while, but with the tight property market had struggled to find anything suitable prior to the auction.
They said the land was a good fit for their business.
Mr Thomason said the auction was well attended, with many people utilising it as an opportunity to get a pulse on the market and to catch up with the community.
"We had bankers, settlement agents, all sorts of people from the ag space - quite a number of people came for the occasion," he said.
Owner Andrew Harris had been triggered to sell after witnessing the rapid escalation of property prices over the past two years.
Mr Harris was a second generation farmer, with the farm being in his family for the past 30 years.
"I think he was comfortable to move out of the industry with that sort of outcome, he'll focus on other areas - it's a new chapter of his life, he'd say," Mr Thomason said.
Nutrien Harcourts WA real estate manager Darren Tapscott said the auction result underpinned the strength of the market, particularly in better regarded, high rainfall areas.
Mr Tapscott expected the interest to be high due to the market being so tight - with very limited transactions occurring in the area in the past year.
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"In a market such as this, it's a very solid result and a fairly significant number," Mr Tapscott said.
Mr Thomason said auctions worked well when there were a large number of buyers in the market and it was unclear where the property being offered stood.
"It's the fairest way for everybody in the community to get an opportunity, which is what I like about it," Mr Thomason said.
K-Cee Ridge's topography is slightly sloping, with mostly flat open workable areas, with easy working, sandy loams over gravel soils.
Cropping rotations on the property have been canola and wheat, with some sheep run in the program over time.
In a high rainfall area, the farm averaged 420 millimetres over the past five years and has good water access, including two reliable dams that service the livestock watering system from storage tanks and five troughs.
The farm's layout is designed around a central laneway system for easy access to the sheds and paddocks.
In a prime location, the farm has bitumen frontage and is only 60 kilometres west of Esperance.
The property has quality infrastructure and improvements including a five-bedroom, two-bathroom homestead and a range of different tanks and sheds.
The Nutrien Harcourts team said it was privileged to be given the opportunity to represent Mr Harris and was excited about the future of the real estate market.
