Despite 98.4 per cent of the state remains drought impacted, a recent report has revealed that the median price of farmland has continues to rise.
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Nationally the median price of Australian farmland increased 10.7 per cent in 2018, according to Rural Bank's annual Australian Farmland Values report.
Overall in NSW the median price per hectare (ha) increased by 9.6 per cent in 2018, the fifth consecutive year of growth.
In 2018, the estimated number of farmland transactions in NSW was 3068, a decrease of 18 per cent compared to 2017.
The area of farmland traded in 2018 across NSW was approximately 1.58 million ha, a decrease of 28.2 per cent compared to 2017, which represented 18.3 per cent of all farmland transacted across Australia in 2018.
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The total value of NSW farmland traded in 2018 was approximately $3.4 billion, a decrease of eight per cent compared to 2017, according to the report.
Rural Bank head of sales Jonathon Hewitt said the drought had impacted the volume of transactions across the NSW market in 2018
"Although the supply of properties was lower than previous years, demand remained high for quality farmland in every region," he said.
"Fewer low value transactions and more high value transactions was a common theme for the state, which resulted in the median price per hectare increasing in 2018."
Western NSW was the top performing region in 2018, reporting a median price per ha growth of 50.1 per cent due to a large decline in transaction volume in 2018 which altered the mix of sales.
The municipality of Brewarrina performed strongly in 2018 up by 23.2 per cent, while Cobar reported a decline of 19.9 per cent.
Transaction volumes in the region decreased by 34 per cent to 33 transactions.
For Central NSW the median price per ha increased by 7.8 per cent in 2018 to $3987 per ha, resulting in a fifth consecutive year of growth for the region.
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The highest growth in median price per ha was recorded in Warren up by 59 per cent. While Gilgandra declined by 26.4 per cent.
Bathurst was up by 11.3 per cent in 2018, and in the same period Dubbo increased 22.8 per cent, Narromine rose 8.9 per cent and Coonamble was up by 31.4 per cent.
The volume of transactions decreased sharply to approximately 966 transactions, 22.5 per cent below 2017.
