$150m if you value them commercially with no added value. Landcorp.
$170m if they have the added value of including farms next door to established blocks already owned, especially if some of them are ancestral blocks. Kiwi landowners including Maori bid.
$200m + if you are trying to establish the principle that foreigners are able to buy any farms they choose to here. Pengxin bid.
I can understand why the receiver wants the highest bid.
But it is the government’s duty to ensure we don’t become tenants in our own country.
“But it is the government’s duty to ensure we don’t become tenants in our own country. ”
And you think Michael Fay is a suitable owner? Are the bulk of his assets in NZ? Does he live here? I know he spends some time here, but I suspect it’s mostly to keep an eye out for new opportunities for manouvering a quick buck out of the taxpayer. Like this one – PR and political machinations to help acquire an asset for less than it’s worth. He seems to have Labour still on board – it was Labour who gave him his knighthood after all.
Have we forgotten the winebox?
The group bid Fay is part of includes iwi and a group of farmers who will share out the 16 farms.
Fay has owned farmland for over 30 years and sold none.
There are more ways of dealing with the Crafar farms We need to learn from a real third world country -Ethiopia Sa the Chinese and the Brits did for the Olympics the government is shifting people of their land But they are not selling this prime agricultural land they are leasing it out to very wealthy Saudis. Thje option for NZ is to allow Landcorp to buy the Crafar farms and and thus the debt will be paid and then rent it out to the Chinese on a be to be arranged lease In fact versions of this sytem should be used for land purchases.
Despite Mr Key’s assertion land sale is not compulsory Overseas purchases have the property market in Auckland so we could minimize this by putting caveats on it The Asian press delight in telling its readers how easy it is to get hold of land in NZ. Stop being a sucker John and act