The Real Estate Institute is of the viewpoint that though stable outlook was maintained by farm sale prices in July; there are explicit indications that the dairy boom is well and truly dead.

The month of July, the national median sale price for farms, coming at $1,200,000, was slightly up on the $1,155,000 fetched in the previous month. As of now, the price level is somewhat aligned with 2007 levels. However, it is well below 2008 levels, where high dairy prices saw a boom in farm trading and shot the median sale price to $1,800,000.

The month of July saw only 229 farms being sold countrywide, which was almost 20% down on June's sale volumes and well below the 601 farms sold in July 2008.

It was put forward by Real Estate Institute rural spokesperson, Peter McDonald, he was not happy to see the level of sales.

McDonald said: "The figures still have a long way to get back to the peak of the market in July 2008 when the national average was $1.8 million."

He continued: "But we are definitely seeing consistency across the market."

He expressed that the continuing uncertainty over the dollar was the biggest battle the rural market was facing. He also said that he was waiting to see how the market would shape up in spring.

He concluded: "At the end of the day, a lot will depend on the value of the dollar."