ORLA Realty › Acreage & farms
Buying rural land is not buying a house on a bigger block. What decides it is water, whether you may build, how you get in and out, and what the country will actually carry. Most buyer's agents work in metropolitan suburbs. We do this.
We are based in Melbourne's north and inspect in person — on rural property there is no other way to assess water, access or fencing.
The most expensive mistake on rural land is assuming a house is allowed. Land in a farming or rural zone usually needs a planning permit for a dwelling, the council weighs it against the farming use of the land, and on smaller lots it is often refused — including on blocks that are advertised as though a house were a formality. An existing shed, an old dwelling site, or a neighbour who built ten years ago prove nothing about what you would be granted today. We check the zone, the overlays, the lot history and any existing permit before you offer, and where it is not clear we get it in writing from the council rather than from the listing.
On irrigated country the water can be worth a large share of what you are paying, and it does not always come with the land — entitlements can be held separately, sold separately, or partly transferred. On dry country the question is different but no less important: whether the stock and domestic supply holds through a bad summer, and what the dams and bores really deliver rather than what they look like in April. Either way, get what is included in writing before the contract, not after.