Farm sales in South Africa looking bullish

A total of 3 864 farms were sold in South Africa between January and October this year, a significant increase from the 3 133 over the same period in 2021, according to Johann Bornman, chairperson of Agri Development Solutions.

-  Glenneis Kriel

In terms of size, sales of farms smaller than 50ha increased from 1 054 to 1360, while sales of those larger than 600ha rose from 651 to 706. Bornman said the increase in sales of smaller farms indicated a healthy speculative market, whereas the sales of larger farms pointed to the growing trend to work remotely and buy "lifestyle farms in the Karoo", for example.

"It's difficult to justify the purchase of the Karoo farms in economic terms, however, because most would have been subjected to drought for the past seven years, and it'll take a few years before the veld has recovered fully.