WIND farms are blowing land values off course, slashing property tags by up to a third in some areas and lifting others by as much $50,000 per turbine.
A new study shows the presence of wind turbines significantly influence land values – but it’s not all bad.
The study co-incides with a new push by the Federal Government to speed up the building opf wind farms across Australia.
Ballarat-based value Alan Hives said there had now been enough sales of property featuring or near wind farms to draw some conclusions of their impact on property values.
Essentially, he said, the more intrusive the wind turbines in “lifestyle” terms, the bigger the price impact.
In some coastal areas of Gippsland with high lifestyle value, property values had fallen by as much as a third.
However in many other areas where farming was the focus the impact on land value had been insignificant – and in cases where there was an income stream from towers, the land price actually increased.
Mr Hives - who has 25 years experience as a valuer in the district - said almost 800 turbines could be in place within 45 minutes of Ballarat in coming years. More are tipped along the coast and in the highland areas of the State.
“It will have a very large impact on the look of the country, but the change in land value will depend on the site, the situation and the circumstances,” Mr Hives said.
At Waubra near Ballarat – where a third of a proposed 128 wind towers have now been built – Mr Hives said the impact on land values of town, rural-residential and lifestyle blocks and farming land had been mixed based on his assessment of at least 12 properties.
“It is very subjective as not everyone dislikes the look of the towers. The value is very much in the eye of the beholder,” he said.
“For rural land there does not seem to be a big change in value as it does not effect production.
“For lifestyle blocks it can reduce prices but not often. With the market being so strong in recent years this effect may have been masked.”
Mr Hives said the prospect of lease payments of about $8000 per year per turbine had increased the value of land in the area with turbines by as much as $40,000-$50,000 per tower.
He noted that most developers limited financial rewards to landholders with turbines actually on their land.
“In Europe there is a much more equitable payment system where people next door receive 50pc of the lease payment and residents further away receive a 25pc payment as compensation. Such a system seems a little fairer that the holder takes all payment system proposed for many wind farms.”
Mr Hives said few people had yet considered the impact of wind towers on property values down the track.
“Currently the effect is not universal but will those areas close to the towers appreciate in value at a different rate to the unaffected areas in the future? Clearly this will depend on a range of factors not just the towers but principally on the broader economic conditions.”
Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett last week announced State and territory environment ministers had agreed to advance the development of national wind farm guidelines.
Mr Garrett said the new guidelines would "improve consistency and transparency in the wind farm planning and approval process" and help address some of the barriers to wind farm development.
"Wind energy has the potential to deliver a significant proportion of Australia’s future electricity needs and has an important role to play in helping Australia achieve our target of producing 20 per cent of our electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020," Mr Garrett said.
A report on wind farm establishment, given to the Government last week, looked at a range of impediments holding back the growth of wind farming, and recommended new guidelines to help address these at a national level.
Mr Garrett said while responsibility for the assessment and approval of proposed wind farms rests primarily with the States and territories, there could be room for the Federal Minister for the Environment to step in where the proposal might be of national significance.
Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, said any roll out of wind farms provided farmers with another option of what to do on their land.
"I don't think wind farms and agricultural purposes are necessarily mutually exclusive," Mr Burke said.
"There's no end of farms that I've visited in last 12 months that are using renewable energy on their own premises, if there's an opportunity for them to do that as well as pump back into the grid.
"That potentially provides an extra flow of income for farmers and they'll make the decisions about what to do on their land."
Mr Burke said the development of wind farms had not reached the same stage as controversial managed investment schemes, where it's argued big corporate companies – not farmers – are moving into the property market to buy farms for their developments.
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