A massive mixed enterprise property in Tasmania's midlands has sold for more than $100 million.
A LAWD spokesperson has confirmed the sale of Vaucluse Estate went through yesterday.
"A sale has occurred at a level of value that exceeds our initial guidance of $100 million-plus," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that during the nine-month sales campaign, there were more than "200 genuine inquiries from around the world, including a number from Tasmania".
The contracts were exchanged yesterday.
The purchaser has not been revealed, but it is thought to be a superannuation fund from New Zealand.
Rural financial advisor and former banker Greg Bott said Tasmania's rural land was in demand and the Vaucluse sale sent a strong message to the market.
"The whole state is bubbling at the moment — there's a lot of properties turning over and a lot of good prices being achieved," he said.
"In a world where we are experiencing climate change, Tasmania is as safe as it can be."
A rich history
The prized property is a mixed merino and cropping enterprise spanning 4,448 hectares, half of which is irrigated.
It doubled in size in the past eight years under the ownership of US-based private equity firm Proterra Investment Partners.
The heritage-listed homestead at Vaucluse Estate was built in 1830 as a four-storey brick and stucco building.
It was renovated in 1940.
Its longest period of ownership was by the Mackinnon family, who lived there from the 1880s to the 1960s.
The estate became known as a leading Australian Corriedale sheep stud during that time.
Its wool clips reached national price records.
Vaucluse has nearly nine kilometres of direct frontage on the South Esk River and, like many big properties in the northern midlands of Tasmania, has tapped into new irrigation schemes.
Currently, the property is used for an intensive double cropping system with a focus on high-yielding crops like potatoes, poppies, carrot seeds and hemp.
Despite the region receiving little more than 500mm of rainfall a year, Vaucluse has more than 9,000 megalitres of water storage and an annual water entitlement of more than 15,000ML.
It also has significant cereal, oilseed, and legume crops that are run in conjunction with grazing sheep and cattle.
$10m is the new $3m
Mr Bott said the buoyant market had prompted a new saying in the banking sector — "$10 million is the new $3 million".
"It means that people who used to owe $3 million now owe $10 million," he said.
"I've been involved in more lending activity in the last three years than I ever did at the bank."
He said investment in the rural sector was not slowing down.
"It is not, at this point in time, showing too much sign of levelling off or slowing down. Prime properties are selling quite rapidly.
"There's a lot of properties in the state that have been purchased by overseas interests from all over the world, and from every corner, the percentage is certainly growing.
"If a farmer wants to sell, he will sell. That's just the way it is."
"We have seen a dynamic change in land ownership in Tassie over the last three to five years especially."
