National Forum

Marketing conservation properties: an agent's perspective

Ms Jill Turton

In recent years erosion and salinity have been recognised as an important issue that needs to be dealt with, particularly in the farming areas of the state.

Also in recent years, there has been strong growth in recognition by the general public that our natural heritage is dwindling and needs to be conserved and regenerated for our land's current health and for future generations.

Included in the raft of various Government policies and regulations invoked to deal with these issues is the policy making approval for clearing private land more difficult with those clearing approvals being tied to project related situations.

Whilst it is becoming more difficult to clear land, it is also becoming easier for private property owners to source assistance to help protect and care for those treasured bushland areas... from assistance with fencing costs to covenanting the land.

So the private property landscape is in a state of change.

From a Real Estate Agent's perspective, selling bushland is not new, but has definitely been seen as almost incidental to the REAL work of selling farmland. Although bushland environments occur on privately owned properties, many are adjuncts to farming providing shade and shelter for the stock or windbreaks for crops or protection for soils.

Some farmers have defined a special piece of land as something they want to protect.

Although most remnant vegetation on the land has been an adjunct to the farming process in the past, there were occasionally the 100% bush lot that hit the market - hard to sell, very small market... Unproductive land!

The Margaret River Wine Region is My patch! Basically the cape to cape area is the "holiday retreat" for a great proportion of the population based in Perth and other regional areas, and particularly the reputation for premium wines, also attracts people from all over the world. It's a place people want to be! They want to find a way of being able to be part of this area - to take ownership in whichever way suits them!

We are members of the Real Estate Institute of WA and have been following the Bushbrokers Programme development. Our company decided to actively work towards the Bush brokers aims. We are certainly not skilled in the areas of bush management or even recognition of what is special about a particular piece of bushland. As you may imagine, we have a variety of lots on our books featuring bushland and ranging from 100% bush to several significant stands on a larger property. Up until now.. and still today, the best way to sell property with bushland was to sell the other features - location, water, soils, development potential!!!! Bush didn't feature highly but was kind of like background music.... Always there, but not obviously appreciated.

We have taken the tack of contacting local community groups and individuals who have the knowledge and skills we lack to advise us on the particularly special plants, animals or environments on these blocks, that we aren't aware of... and we are trying to use these features as selling points. We have worked with a representative from Bush Care who spent a lot of his private time walking through the property and compiling a report we could use. He and Keith Bradby have helped us use this information for our advertising and in a manner that we expect to attract buyers for the bushland values. We are currently working with a representative from Landcare who is compiling reports for us to use. We will be paying either herself directly or one of the groups she works with which will promote a connection between the community conservation groups and ourselves and heighten awareness of the move towards selling bushland for its bush values.

Lets look at a particular property!

Boronia bush block - 80 acres - creekline. Fenced off. Good quality bush - spot milled some 20 years ago but has been fenced off from cattle for years. The farmer has always loved a wander through, listening to the birds Adjoins a vineyard.

Let's look at who's likely to buy this property? The reality of selling property with a bushland focus is that it is currently very difficult to do. There are really only three markets that accept bushland - the conservation market...a tiny group of committed people, who are often looking for a specific product; the commercial market... a small group who make money from the bush, seed collecting or for eco tourism; and the lifestyle market which is much larger but is quite fickle and the buyers really often don't know what it is that they are seeking... they'll know when they see it!

Purchaser's views - it doesn't really matter what a purchaser is looking at buying his concerns are the same!

The features of the block:
Buying costs.
Holding costs.
Development costs.
Resale potential.
What he can and can't do - The restrictions and freedoms.

Unless the purchaser is wholly committed to the bush or wants to build and live in the area forever - the purchaser is not going to buy the boronia bushland.

Combining bushland with cleared land, providing an opportunity to gain financially as well as retain & maintain a healthy bushland environment, is going to be the smoothest path to a sale.

We are not representative of the wider rural real estate in Western Australia. Each area has its own impacts and issues to deal with. Changes to Government policy and regulation pertaining to rural land owners has been swift and diverse over the last few years. There's a lot of confusion and uncertainty out there. I know what's happening in my area, and the local real estate agent will be one of the best people you can see in any other area to advise on what's happening there and how best to sell your property or direct you to property to suit your needs when buying.

Real Estate Agent's tasks are wide and varied. One of the tasks that I llike dealing with is when a farmer approaches us to ask what he can best do with his property because he is looking to retire in 5 years time. We discuss the market and the features of their property, then recommend consultants, government bodies or other places for them to go to put into action the plan that we have developed. This might include looking at realignment of boundaries, subdivision, planting of windbreaks, sourcing water or creating accesses. We can now add the option of covenanting the bushland, but it will be up to the vendor to decide whether that is worth his while... at the moment there is no evidence to show whether it is or not.

I'm not a passionate conservationist but I certainly appreciate our unique natural environment and bushland.

Our company and the representatives in it are committed to promote bush values when selling bushland. It is not usually the role of real estate to set trends, we usually work with them when they appear. In this case we feel like we are trying to push the market! But that's okay, we will continue to do what we can to promote the bush values to the market.