The Real Estate Institute says the number of farms sold on an annual basis is the highest for more than three years.
Its latest survey of stock, cropping, horticulture and lifestyle properties in the year to the end of August shows that sales were up 45% compared with the previous year.
The institute's Rural Market Report includes year-on-year figures. It also compares farm sales in the three months to the end of August 2012 with the same period for the previous two years.
In the last three months, 318 farms of all types have changed hands, which is 65% more than the same period in 2010.
The median selling price per hectare is just under $20,000 a hectare, some 5% higher than it was two years ago.
The institute's rural market spokesperson Brian Peacocke says there is still uncertainty in the rural sector driven by offshore factors and the value of the New Zealand dollar, but good growing conditions and early production are providing a platform for sales in spring.
He says despite the reduction in the dairy payout there's a solid inquiry for dairy farms and continued interest in sheep and beef properties driven by an expectation that meat and wool prices will improve.
Mr Peacocke says there's strong interest in lifestyle blocks in the range of $600,000 to $2 million.
Bay of Plenty, which is suffering from the fallout of the kiwifruit vine killing disease PSA, the only region where activity is slow.