Colliers expands rural & agri team

Colliers International has expanded its rural and agribusiness real estate division in Australia and New Zealand with the hire of Richard Royle as a director, taking its staff to 15. He will be involved in property valuation work as well as agency and advisory services.

Royle most recently worked in the residential and acreage real estate industry on Northern Beaches, Sydney and also has his own vineyard and wine label – Yango Creek Wines – which he established to run alongside the family cattle station business.

He will be based in Sydney and report to Tim Altschwager, national director of Collier’s rural and agribusiness division.

Colliers is expanding its rural and agribusiness operations after selling over 120 properties valued at over A$420 million in total and valuing properties worth over A$2.5 billion in the last 18 months, according to a spokesperson.

The rural and agribusiness division includes forestry in its remit and Colliers worked with New Forests, a global timber asset management firm, on its acquisition of 21,000 hectares of forests from the Australian Sustainable Forestry Investors Fund in May.