Aircraft shaves hundreds of hours from North Qld agent’s annual sales commute

Media release - August 23rd, 2016

High flying Raine & Horne Rural Atherton/Julia Creek principal Bram Pollock says his decision to invest in a RV-7A light aircraft shaves his travelling time by hundreds of hours annually.

Mr Pollock delivers rural real estate services to a market extending 800 kilometres from Julia Creek in Queensland’s far north-west, to the fertile Atherton Tablelands on the east coast.

“One of my remotest cattle clients is six hours from my Julia Creek office, yet I can be there in 75 minutes in the RV-7A,” said Mr Pollock.

“Even with this time saving, the travelling is significantly more than for a residential agent in a capital city, who might be a maximum of 15 minutes by car to a sales listing. I’m still in the air about 300 hours a year or about 12.5 days annually.

“Without the plane it would be closer to 1800 hours or 2.5 months of car commuting to cover my vast territory. That said, our buyers usually have a strong interest in the property, so the travelling distance is part and parcel of making a rural sale.”

Mr Pollock, who specialises in marketing a vast range of rural properties from citrus farms to beef and wool investments, says rural real estate in Northern Australia is a vastly different proposition to listing a house in Sydney or Melbourne.

“If a buyer is interested in a significant rural listing, there’s an expectation that an agent like me will pull out all stops to get them to the property for an inspection,” said Mr Pollock.

“We fly many of our buying prospects in the RV-7A from Cairns and Townsville for inspections. If they’re prepared to spend millions, they expect this level of service from an agent,” said Mr Pollock.

Fortunately, many of the properties Mr Pollock represents offer a Royal Flying Doctor rated airstrip, however it’s not all smooth flying.

“We don’t have too many problems landing on airstrips, except last week, when an errant ant bed put a dent in the wing of the RV-7A,” said Mr Pollock.

“The plane is still air-worthy though – we’re just waiting on a new part from the United States,” says Mr Pollock.

“It’s a very fast plane to fly and economical to run.”

On the rural property front, there is a two tiered rural property market in North Australia, according to Mr Pollock.

“The corporate market is represented by assets valued over $40 million and there is a private investor market, where properties are selling for between $1.5 million and $8 million,” he says.

“We’re talking mostly 30,000 acres plus beef properties valued up to $8 million.”

Raine & Horne Rural Atherton/Julia Creek, for example, recently listed Ooralat – a 34,560 acre pastoral holding, boasting 28 kilometres of Einasleigh River frontage at Junction Creek in Far North Queensland.

“The property comes with 17 dams, 5 bores, 5 main paddocks, 4 holding paddocks and a 5km laneway system. It has near new barbed wire fencing, which is shock proofed,” said Mr Pollock.

Fully watered, the property offers steel and cable yards with an excellent sprinkler system, with a double deck loading ramp, a new undercover branding area, vet crush and a fully reconditioned dip and drain pen, which is capable of working approximately 1000 head. It also has 2 large coolers.

“Ooralat is within an hour of registered cattle sales and 2.5 hours from all major services at Atherton, so isolation isn’t a problem,” said Mr Pollock.

“This is a cost effective, drought proof, easily managed property, experiencing an excellent season and an abundance of feed, and will appeal to owner-occupiers and private investors.”

Mr Pollock said the doubling in beef prices over the last six months is creating a paradox for those seeking a property in Northern Australia.

“Many of the properties are either understocked or bare and this means buyers now have to pay $1,000 for a breeding cow, whereas it was $500 a head just 12 months ago,” he says.

“You might be buying a $6 million dollar property and then spend millions more to stock it.

“This is why Ooralat is set to appeal as it comes with 650 breeding female cattle, which will pique the interest of investors and owner-occupiers.”

For all your rural real estate sales needs in Northern Australia, contact Raine & Horne Rural Atherton / Raine & Horne Rural Julia Creek on 0428 467 030.

–ENDS–

For further media information contact:

Andrew Harrington, National Communications Manager, Raine & Horne on 02 9258 5400