Global recession has triggered a lack of faith in UK banks and financial institutions driving wealthy Britons to take new interest in buying New Zealand farmland.
Well-heeled investors in Britain are withdrawing funds and lining up New Zealand farms as land-bank holdings which are seen as a safer investment in the current climate, according to Bayleys.
The real estate company regularly promotes New Zealand property offshore, and each year conducts a "Farming NZ" roadshow across Britain, showcasing New Zealand farms to English and Irish farmers.
Bayleys has sold about $362 million worth of farms and agricultural-related properties to UK buyers since 2002.
Today it said that collapse of major UK banks, building societies and lending institutions had sent jitters through the British economy.
Bayleys said it had signed a deal with one of Britain's biggest agricultural and rural property companies, Smiths Gore, to channel millions of pounds of UK investment funds into NZ rural properties.
Land values in NZ have dropped dramatically from their peak of two years ago at the height of the dairy boom, a bigger fall than has been seen in British farm values.
"This has created an investment disparity which many of our clients have expressed an interest in taking advantage of," Giles Wordsworth, head of Smiths Gore's farm agency, said.
"We are confident of putting together a sizeable portfolio of rural real estate to present to our clientele: New Zealand has long set the rural production benchmarks British farmers admire."
Mr Wordsworth warned NZ farm owners not to build up unrealistic price expectations "in the hope of making a quick buck from investors on the other side of the world".
"Our clients are extremely astute when it comes to land pricing and the operational structures of the farming business they are buying," he said.
"They are highly discerning when it comes to investment, and certainly won't be throwing around funds.
"Our typical UK investors would buy the productive unit as a going concern - whether it be sheep and beef, dairy, arable or viticulture - then put in local management to run the operation.
"This local management is often the previous owner, who is guaranteed an income from the land yet is free from the restraints and concerns of funding the business. Technology and communications now allowed for the day-to-day operations of a farm in Matamata to be viewed and managed in "real time" by an owner in Yorkshire, Mr Wordsworth said.