Recruitment Blitz Establishes CBRE as Agribusiness Valuation Leader

John Harrison joins CBRE to lead its Agribusiness Valuation & Advisory Services team in one of 13 new hires  

CBRE has super-charged its Australian Agribusiness platform with the recruitment of 13 new valuers, providing specialist expertise across all the country’s major geographies. 

One of the key new hires is industry market leader John Harrison, who will head CBRE’s Australian Agribusiness Valuation & Advisory Services business. 

Mr Harrison has joined CBRE after a decade at Colliers International, where he most recently led the firm’s national Agribusiness Valuations team. 

Other news joiners include Alex Thamm, James Beveridge, Sam Douglas and Amy Retell. 

Following several other recent hires, CBRE now fields a 20-plus strong Agribusiness Valuation & Advisory Services team, positioning the firm as the industry market leader. 

CBRE’s Senior Managing Director, Residential & Agribusiness Valuations, Jarrod Frazer said, “These appointments highlight CBRE’s commitment to Australia’s thriving agricultural sector. Our focus is to provide our clients with a fully differentiated service offering across all agribusiness asset classes and geographic locations given the considerable growth opportunities in this market sector.” 

In his new role, Mr Harrison will be supported by an expert leadership team including Angus Shaw, Andrew Loughnan, Alex Thamm and Simon Altschwager, leading CBRE’s Agribusiness specific Quality and Risk Management function.  

Mr Harrison said, “CBRE has been able to attract some of the most experienced industry experts within Agribusiness valuations and I am excited to be working alongside such highly regarded professionals.  

“The attraction to join CBRE was primarily due to the company’s strong global brand presence and the extensive resources available. This will enable our team to provide high quality and efficient valuation services and become the national provider of choice in Agribusiness property, with the capability to service all states and territories of Australia.” 

Mr Harrison noted that Australian farmland had proven to be a resilient investment sector throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with farmer confidence high on the back of good seasonal conditions and favourable commodity prices. 

“A low interest rate environment and a shortage of listings over the past few years has led to surging rural land values across the country, with this strong value uplift resulting in improved equity positions,” Mr Harrison noted. 

“This has enabled producers - particularly family groups – to expand and achieve greater economies of scale. We’ve also witnessed appetite from several investors with mandates to deploy capital in Australian agricultural property, with a focus on land value appreciation and security of revenue streams.” 

Mr Harrison said various REIT’s and unlisted funds were also targeting farmland investment opportunities to diversify their business models. 

“Against this backdrop, sale and leaseback transactions of Australian farmland will continue to grow in the coming years as various property investors look for real estate assets offering counter-cyclical advantages to the traditional real estate asset classes of office, retail and industrial,” Mr Harrison added.