AUSTRALIA: The Australian Government has Released a Report on the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land

Friday September 29 2017

The Australian Government has released a Report on Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land.

This is the second report of the Agricultural Land Register and includes registrations made by foreign persons between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2017. The first report was released on 7 September 2016 and included information about agricultural land registered by foreign persons as at 30 June 2016.

Foreign persons are required to register their interests in agricultural land within 30 days of a specified event occurring, this includes the acquisition or disposal of those interests.

The total area of agricultural land in Australia with a level of foreign ownership has fallen from 52.1 million hectares at 30 June 2016 to 50.5 million hectares at 30 June 2017.

Since the release of Agricultural Land Register report (Agland 2016), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revised the total amount of agricultural land in Australia. To reflect this change and provide a basis for comparison across 2016 and 2017, the 2016 figure for the total level of foreign ownership in agricultural land has been adjusted to 14.1 per cent.

The proportion of agricultural land with a level of foreign ownership (foreign held) has fallen from 14.1 per cent (adjusted) at 30 June 2016 to 13.6 per cent at 30 June 2017.

There have been some significant changes in foreign ownership of agricultural land across states and territories.

The majority of these changes are due to the acquisition and disposal of agricultural land by foreign investors, and existing agricultural land holders changing their status to or from a foreign person.

Key findings on a national basis include:

• Over 98 per cent of foreign held agricultural land is held within Australian incorporated entities.
• Around 80 per cent of foreign held agricultural land is held on a leasehold basis.
• Over 85 per cent of foreign held agricultural land is used for livestock purposes.
• The United Kingdom remains the largest foreign agricultural land holder (2.6 per cent of agricultural land), followed by China (2.5 per cent of agricultural land) and the United States of America (0.7 per cent of agricultural land).

Changes in agricultural land interests by country of ownership compared to Agland 2016 can be attributed to:

• new registrations of acquisitions of agricultural land that have settled since 1 July 2016;
• agricultural land that has been sold to Australian entities and has been removed from the register;
• agricultural land that has been sold to other foreign entities with a different foreign country of ownership
• foreign entity restructures which have resulted in a change of the foreign entity’s status as a foreign person; and
• There have been several large transactions which have altered the country of ownership of agricultural land. For example, the sale of S Kidman and Co to Australian Outback Beef has increased the level of Chinese ownership of agricultural land by 2.6 million hectares (0.7 per cent), as Chinese investors have a 33 per cent interest in Australian Outback Beef.

Key findings on a state and territory basis include:

• An increase of 44.9 per cent (3,968,000 ha) in Western Australian foreign held agricultural land, primarily due to new registrations of acquisitions of agricultural land that have settled since 1 July 2016.
• Decreases in foreign held agricultural land by:
• 0 per cent (2,360,000 ha) in South Australia
• 8 per cent (1,910,000 ha) in Queensland
• 8 per cent (1,483,000 ha) in the Northern Territory.

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