This episode featured as part of the Real Estate segment in partnership with Bayleys Country – your rural and lifestyle property specialists.

New Zealand is not running out of good farmland, says Waikato agricultural economist Phil Journeaux, and the policy meant to protect it should be torn up and rebuilt on real science.

He says the country holds three and a half million hectares of highly productive land. Splitting it into smaller blocks keeps productivity up.

He says the real shortage is housing, with cities like Hamilton sit ringed by prime soil and have nowhere else to grow. With Treasury valuing housing land at 10 to 20 times its farming worth, the pressure to subdivide builds.

This episode featured as part of the Real Estate segment in partnership with Bayleys Country – your rural and lifestyle property specialists. To learn more about rural and lifestyle property opportunities, or to connect with a local expert, visit bayleys.co.nz/country

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.