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Farm loans hard to recover?

PA Auckland Falling farm values mean lending institutions could have trouble recovering mortgages as some farmers go to the wall, Rural Bank findings show. A bank spokesman, Mr Arnold Snodgrass, said farm prices had dropped about 30 per cent recently.

“Institutions that have lent two-thirds of a farm’s value now find their loan covers the full value of the property,” he said. “If the farmer is forced into a mortgagee sale the institutions may be lucky to recover all their share,” Mr Snodgrass said. A mortgagee sale of an Otago farm recently recovered only $900,000 of the farmer’s $2.5 million debt. South Island sheep fanners were most at risk, he said. Half the country’s 22,000 to 26,000 sheep farmers were feeling the pinch with many having to sell assets to meet mortgage repayments. More than 1000 sheep farmers were in severe difficulty, he said.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19851220.2.28

Bibliographic details

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 3

Word Count
149

Farm loans hard to recover? Press, 20 December 1985, Page 3

Farm loans hard to recover? Press, 20 December 1985, Page 3