AUGUST 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
Demand for ranchland drives
BC property sales Big players, few restrictions spur land sales
by PETER MITHAM ABBOTSFORD – With a
year’s worth of provincial data now in hand, northern BC has emerged as the favoured market for farm properties in BC. Data the province released at the end of June, days before the government of former Premier Christy Clark fell in a non-confidence vote, indicated that 900 farm properties changed hands in the province between June 2016 and the end of May 2017. Clark’s government announced plans to track buyer information in spring 2016 in response to concerns over foreign ownership. Of the 900 sales, 189
occurred in the Northern Rockies-Peace River region, and 97 occurred in the Cariboo. The majority of properties in these areas are ranching and grain operations.
Prime real estate “Ranches are one of the
prime properties for sale,” says Rudy Nielsen, president of Niho Land and Cattle Co. and Landquest Realty Corp. in New Westminster. Raised in Prince George and a broker of rural properties since the 1960s, he said his companies have sold at least a dozen ranches in the past two years. The past year was especially active thanks to renewed interest from US buyers as well as deep- pocketed purchasers looking for land to support organic and speciality beef operations. “It’s picked up this year
over the last two or three years,” he says. According to Farm Credit
Canada, which released its annual survey of farmland values in April, farm properties in the Peace River region gained 9.1% in value in 2016. “[There was] continued demand from local expanding producers, with
the strongest demand for good quality land for both grain and hay production,” FCC reported. “There was also increased interest from outside buyers, as farmland in the area was still considered relatively affordable.”
Demand in the Cariboo
region came from expanding operations and new entrants, with some outside buyers. Prices there increased 2.7%. Nielsen said prices have inched up due to aggressive sellers as well as a shortage of available properties. “No, there’s not that many
guys out there trying to sell ranches, and those that are trying to sell are holding on to it for a pretty good price,” he says, noting that the buyers moving in often have deep pockets. “Now you put a price on it, just so you can own a ranch.”
Buyers’ impact
Landcor Data Corp., another of Nielsen’s ventures, provided numbers to the Vancouver Sun earlier this year that underscored buyers’ impact on prices. Provincially, the average price of farmland in BC – buoyed by high land values in the Lower Mainland – topped $150,000 an acre last fall.
This was up from averages Strike!
15
A lightning strike ignited this round bale in a hay field in the Lily Lake area near Fort Fraser July 7. While fire activity in the Nechako Valley was relatively calm compared to further south near Williams Lake, ranchers kept a close watch after a short-lived but very active electrical storm blew through the region early last month. Fortunately, this fire was extinguished. TANYA BELSHAM PHOTO
closer to $100,000 an acre prior to the province slapping a 15% tax on foreign purchases of residential real estate in Metro Vancouver last August. According to critics, the tax accelerated foreign purchases of farm properties that could accommodate a residence as well as generate income and a tax break. The province has discounted the idea, saying that the residential portion of farm properties are subject to the tax. The province has declined to disclose foreign involvement in purchases of
farm properties, claiming it’s insignificant. Nielsen, however, says the
very lack of restrictions on foreign ownership of farm properties in BC makes it an attractive option and BC an attractive destination. “We’re the only province
that I know of in Western Canada that’s got no restrictions on foreign owners buying ranches and remember, there’s a hell of a hay shortage in China,” he says.
The hay shortage in China
is actually driven by a lack of access to water, something
that’s not a problem in BC. Companies such as such as TopHay Agri-Industries Inc. have bought 10,000 acres near Vanderhoof with a vision of exporting 100,000 tonnes of hay each year to parched regions of China. Qinhuangdao Dahui Biotechnology Co. Ltd. also planned to invest $30 million in an alfalfa plant in Terrace. “We’re going to be supplying hay to some of the Chinese people for their animals,” Nielsen said. “We do have the water resources to grow damn good hay, and no restrictions whatsoever.”
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