Foreign Investors Now Hold 13% of Australia’s Farmland — What Agribusiness Needs to Know

Foreign ownership of Australian farmland reached 50.26 million hectares at 30 June 2025 — equal to 13% of the nation’s total agricultural area — according to the 2024–25 annual report of the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets, tabled in Federal Parliament. The figure rose from 49.12 million hectares the prior year, continuing a steady upward trend.

For agribusiness owners and institutional investors operating in Australian agriculture, this isn’t a political story. It’s a structural one. At scale, it’s altering how Australian farms are financed, governed and managed — and what professional operations at that scale actually look like.

Key Takeaways

• Foreign investors held 50.26M ha — 13% of Australia’s agricultural land — at 30 June 2025, up from 12.7% a year earlier (ATO Register, 2025).
• The NT leads on concentration at 27.8% of its agricultural land; Queensland holds the largest absolute area at 17.07M ha.
• 87% of foreign-held land runs livestock — indicating capital is chasing land value and carbon optionality, not just commodity margins.
• Institutional ownership is lifting the baseline for professional farm management, data reporting and ESG compliance across Australian agriculture.

How Much of Australia’s Agricultural Land Is Now Foreign-Held?

Foreign interests cover 13.0% of Australia’s agricultural land at 30 June 2025, up from 12.7% twelve months earlier (ATO Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets). At 50.26 million hectares, the area under foreign interest is roughly the combined landmass of Spain and Portugal. The annual increment is modest — about 1.14 million hectares — but the direction hasn’t reversed in recent reporting periods.

The land-use split is telling. Livestock operations account for 43.74 million hectares — 87% of all foreign-held agricultural land by area. Cropping takes up 3.40 million hectares, forestry 1.50 million hectares, and intensive horticulture just 184,000 hectares. The dominance of extensive grazing reflects where offshore capital finds it easiest to aggregate scale, access infrastructure corridors and layer carbon credit strategies over production assets.

Commercial observation: The heavy bias toward livestock land — rather than cropping or horticulture — suggests most offshore institutional capital is pricing in land-value appreciation and carbon optionality alongside production returns. This has direct implications for how adjacent-land owners position their own assets in sale or lease negotiations.

Which Regions Carry the Highest Concentration?

Queensland holds the largest absolute area at 17.07 million hectares, followed by the NT at 14.75 million hectares and WA at 11.51 million hectares (AuctionsPlus Pulse). These three states account for 86% of all foreign-held agricultural land nationally.

But concentration figures matter more to local operators than raw acreage. The NT records the highest share — 27.8% of its agricultural land carries a foreign interest, meaning more than one in four hectares is foreign-held. Tasmania follows at 24.1%, despite its small absolute footprint. WA sits at 13.3%, Queensland at 12.7%, while Victoria (6.1%) and NSW/ACT (4.9%) sit well below the national average.

For operators in NT and Queensland — particularly those working within or alongside large pastoral portfolios — the practical reality is that many of the largest neighbouring properties are now run by offshore capital backed by professional management structures.

Who Is Buying — and How Are They Operating?

The 50.26 million hectares is spread across interests registered by entities from 73 countries. The United Kingdom leads at 7.66 million hectares, followed by China at 6.54 million hectares and Canada at 4.93 million hectares (AuctionsPlus Pulse).

These aren’t always direct sovereign or family-office holdings. Canadian and UK capital often enters through pension and infrastructure fund structures — the same category of investor that backs groups like Pastoral Partners Australia (backed by infrastructure manager Morrison with A$36 billion AUM) and US firm Westchester, which manages over US$3 billion in agricultural assets with holdings across Australia and North America. Rural Funds Management, which manages approximately A$2.4 billion in agricultural assets for institutional investors, is a domestic equivalent operating at the same structural level.

What distinguishes this class of owner from traditional family farming operations is the governance and reporting layer they bring. Institutional investors require independently audited production and financial data, formal ESG reporting, professional CEO-level management, and defined exit horizons. That’s a materially different operating environment from a family-held enterprise — and it’s increasingly setting the standard that large-scale farm managers in Australia are benchmarked against.

Industry implication: As institutional portfolios grow in scale, they’re creating a two-tier market for farm management talent and services. Agribusinesses supplying inputs, contracting, or professional services to large portfolios need to meet institutional procurement and compliance standards, not just operational ones.

What Does This Mean for Agribusiness Owners Operating at Scale?

For agribusiness owners, the implications are practical rather than philosophical:

On land values. Institutional buyers with longer hold horizons and lower cost of capital consistently support higher per-hectare prices on quality assets — particularly in NT and Queensland. That lifts valuations for similar neighbouring properties but also raises the competitive barrier for domestic buyers seeking to expand.

On supply chain relationships. Large foreign-owned portfolios are increasingly professionalising their supplier and contracting relationships. Vendors, agronomists, livestock managers and rural service businesses dealing with institutionally owned properties need to operate at the governance and compliance standards those owners require.

On talent. Senior farm management roles within institutional portfolios now routinely carry remuneration packages, KPI frameworks and reporting obligations that track closer to corporate agribusiness than traditional station management. That’s reshaping the talent market across the sector.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the FIRB threshold for foreign purchases of Australian agricultural land?

Any acquisition of agricultural land that takes a foreign person’s total agricultural landholdings above A$15 million requires Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval, regardless of the size of the individual transaction. The government’s general policy is to require an open and transparent sale process before granting approval.

Which foreign country holds the most Australian agricultural land?

The United Kingdom leads at 7.66 million hectares, followed by China at 6.54 million hectares and Canada at 4.93 million hectares. Interests are registered from 73 countries in total, according to the 2024–25 ATO register. Canadian and UK capital frequently enters through pension and infrastructure fund structures rather than direct corporate or family ownership (AuctionsPlus Pulse).

Does foreign land ownership affect water entitlements?

Water interests are tracked separately under the same federal register. At 30 June 2025, foreign ownership of water interests stood at 12.7%, up from 12.3% the prior year. Large pastoral acquisitions in Queensland and NSW typically include bundled water allocations, making water entitlement exposure part of the same institutional investment thesis as the land itself.

The 50 million hectare figure is a data point, not a verdict. What it confirms is that institutional and foreign capital is now a permanent structural feature of the Australian agricultural land market — not a cyclical anomaly. For agribusiness owners and managers operating at scale, understanding how that capital behaves, what it demands from its operations, and how it prices assets is no longer optional context. It’s commercially essential.

March Talent Partners works with farming businesses and agribusinesses across Australia on permanent placements, from operational roles through to senior management. If you want to talk through how to approach your next hire, get in touch.