Sector guide · Turf farms
Land tenure and what is actually being sold
Turf operations sit across a wide range of arrangements. Freehold owned outright, leased country, sharefarming, or a mix across several blocks. Some.
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Turf operations sit across a wide range of arrangements. Freehold owned outright, leased country, sharefarming, or a mix across several blocks. Some sales are the business and the land together, some are the business with leases assigned, and those are completely different transactions with different buyers and different tax consequences.
Work out early which one you are running, because it determines everything downstream. If you are selling the operating business and retaining the land as a lease to the buyer, the lease terms effectively become part of the sale price and need structuring accordingly.
Freehold and the Land Act 1994 lease tenures on a turf farm sale
| Tenure | What it is, and what it does to your sale |
|---|---|
| Freehold | You own the land outright and transfer it by contract and registration. No departmental approval is required to sell, so the timetable is driven by finance, disclosure and the water dealings rather than by land tenure. |
| Term lease | A state lease that expires on a stated date. The maximum term is 50 years, except for state leases over reserves at a maximum of 30 years and significant development leases up to 100 years. Renewal is typically considered after 80% of the term has elapsed. Remaining term is a financing input for your buyer, so a short tail narrows the buyer pool. |
| Rolling term lease | A term lease that may be extended without a formal renewal, used for agricultural, grazing, pastoral and tourism leases. Qualifying categories include an agricultural or pastoral lease over rural land of 100 hectares or more, or smaller rural land approved for the purpose. It may be extended once only, at any time during the current lease term, so an extension before listing is a real option and a real lead time. |
| Perpetual lease | Continues indefinitely, with no expiry to explain to a financier. The Queensland Government states that perpetual leases must only be used for the purpose for which the lease is issued, so a buyer planning a change of use needs to check the purpose clause before contract. |
| Freeholding lease | Lets the landholder pay the purchase price by instalments and converts to freehold when the final instalment is paid. Where you are partway through, the outstanding instalment position forms part of the sale negotiation. |
| Transferring any state lease | Departmental approval is required to transfer a state lease. Some leases, subleases and road licences do not need it. Evidence that all outstanding rent has been paid is mandatory. A non refundable fee applies per title reference. Registration must occur within 6 months of approval or the approval lapses. Outstanding rent and interest become the responsibility of the incoming leaseholder, hardship concessions do not automatically transfer, and permits to occupy cannot be transferred at all. |
Tenure descriptions follow the Queensland Government state land pages under the Land Act 1994, current as at August 2026. Where a mortgagee or receiver is selling, approval is required regardless of any exemption noting, and sale notices must be published 28 days in advance.
The seller disclosure statement, and why 1 August 2025 changed the order of the sale
Queensland’s mandatory seller disclosure scheme applies from 1 August 2025 under the Property Law Act 2023. You must give the buyer a seller disclosure statement in the approved Form 2, together with the prescribed certificates, before the buyer signs the contract. At auction, it must be given before the fall of the hammer. This reverses the old habit of assembling searches after a contract is signed.
Form 2 covers seller and property details, title information, land use and planning information, and building and structures. Prescribed certificates include title searches and survey plans, environmental, building and planning notices, tree application or order documentation, pool safety certificates where applicable, and community management statements and body corporate certificates for scheme land. Disclosed matters include title details, encumbrances, zoning, heritage listing, proposed transport infrastructure notices, resumption notices, contaminated land register status and building related notices. Structural soundness, flooding history and prior approvals are not required to be disclosed.
Contaminated land register status is the item that catches farms. Historic fuel storage, a chemical shed or an old dip site can put land on a register, and the answer is to check and disclose rather than to discover it during a buyer’s searches. The buyer’s remedy is strong. The buyer may terminate at any time up to settlement if the statement or certificates were not given. The buyer may also terminate where the information was inaccurate or incomplete. That right requires the buyer to show the issue was material, that they were unaware of it at signing, and that they would not have contracted had they known.
There are exceptions. Published examples include a buyer that is the State, a government body, a constructing authority or a listed corporation. The published examples also include buyer and seller being related parties, a price over $10 million where the buyer waives disclosure, and a local council recovering unpaid rates. The published list is expressly examples only. I have not been able to verify from the Act whether any exception turns on land being rural, agricultural or used for farming, so do not assume a turf farm sits outside the scheme. Have your solicitor read the Property Law Act 2023 against your sale and confirm it in writing.
Shares in a private company are a financial product under the Corporations Act 2001. Tony Pope does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and does not give financial product advice. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell shares.
Where a sale is structured as a share sale, the share transfer itself is handled by your solicitor and your accountant. This page explains why the structure matters to your licence, your accreditation or your registration. It does not tell you which structure to choose.
This explains how the rules generally work on a business sale. It is not advice about your situation, and nothing here should be acted on without your accountant running your actual numbers.
Tony Pope is not a registered tax agent and does not give tax advice. Deal structure changes what you keep, sometimes by more than the negotiation does, so get that advice before you sign anything.
Tony Pope is a licensed business broker, not a solicitor. This explains how these rules and clauses usually work so you can have a better conversation with your lawyer.
Your contract should be drafted and reviewed by a solicitor. Where anything on this page differs from an official source or from your own legal advice, that source and that advice are right.
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