Conserving rural real estate is our business

The Nature Conservation Trust (NCT) of NSW is emerging as a major player on the rural real estate scene. By buying and selling rural properties, we are helping to grow the market for private land conservation.

However, it’s not just any rural real estate that we target with our Conservation Property Fund. We hand pick properties that contain significant ecological communities and habitat for locally or nationally threatened plant and animal species.

Building Australia’s system of protected areas

The NCT also favours those rural properties that boost Australia’s existing system of national parks, conservation reserves, government and indigenous protected areas (IPAs). This land is highly valued because it can extend wildlife corridors and serve as a refuge for plants and animals in the face of climate change.

The NCT buys rural property using money held in its Conservation Property Fund. Our experienced conservation team then manages and improves the land’s natural and commercial features. When we sell it, with a NCT conservation agreement attached, the new owner becomes the proud custodian of a private conservation reserve.

Rural properties large and small

The rural properties that the NCT buys and sells range in size from just over 40 hectares to more than 8,000 hectares. They include large agricultural holdings, smaller family farms and bush blocks of every shape and size – some of them within an easy commute of major cities and regional centres.

Driving our conservation dollar further

The beauty of this model is that all proceeds from our rural real estate sales are used to buy new conservation properties. This enables us to continually expand our flourishing network of protected areas across the state of NSW.