Business
Trophy-property ranches hit the market as more heirs chose to sell
Owned by the same family for more than 116 years, Reynolds Ranch is now on the market for $30.7 million.
Courtesy of California Outdoor Properties
For more than 116 years, Deanna Davis’ family has owned Reynolds Ranch, spanning 7,600 acres in California’s Central Coast region. With the heirs in disagreement over the homestead’s future, Reynolds Ranch is now on the market for $30.7 million.
“It’s so hard to make decisions together as a family about the ranch,” she told CNBC. “If I had the cash, I would buy the whole thing right now and cash everybody out and start over and take the title in a LLC.”
It’s a common predicament for family trees that have too many branches, said Davis, who runs the ranch. Her mother, who died last December, was the last family member who grew up on Reynolds Ranch. Now the family is scattered across the country and some of her relatives live overseas. Some family members who can only visit once or twice a year would rather cash out.
Families like Davis’ are increasingly choosing to sell these long-held properties, high-end ranch brokers told CNBC.
The legacy properties are in big demand — even if not at pandemic highs — as deep-pocketed buyers crave wide open skies and a slower pace of life. The so-called “Yellowstone” effect remains in full force, with fans of the Paramount show seeking sprawling properties in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other Western states.
“All I know is whoever buys this property, when they sit on the porch in the afternoon, sipping their margarita or iced tea, they will think they landed in paradise,” Davis said.
‘Nothing quite like it’
Ranch brokerage Live Water Properties currently has $700 million in listing inventory, up from under $200 million in May 2024, according to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, broker Latham Jenkins. Many of these properties are legacy ranches that are on the market for the first time in generations, he said.
One such listing is Antlers Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming, which spans 40,000 acres — nearly three times the size of Manhattan — and is priced at $85 million. Antlers Ranch is on the market for the first time in five generations.
“Large historic properties are less common as many have been broken up and sold off,” Jenkins said. “Those that remain are highly desirable.”
These legacy ranches can demand a premium for reasons other than acreage, he said. Many historic ranches, like another one of his listings, Red Hills Ranch, a 190-acre property asking for $65 million, are surrounded by public lands that cannot be developed. Buyers are drawn to that privacy, as well as the ability to hike and fish nearby and see wildlife up close.
Red Hills Ranch, 25 miles outside Jackson WY, spans 190 acres and is listed for $65 million. Nestled in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, Red Hills Ranch was formerly the private guest ranch of late senator Herb Kohl.
Courtesy of Live Water Properties
“When you sit next to a running river, watching sunrises and sunsets, seeing an elk calf be born, there’s nothing quite like it,” Jenkins said.
Families usually come to him when the next generation has little interest in taking over the ranch or the heirs can’t come to an agreement. He described it as “bittersweet” when these one-of-a-kind properties become available for the first time in generations.
“That’s the thing with real estate. The land is perpetual, but the ownership is not,” he said.
Bill McDavid, a broker at Hall and Hall, represents Rocking Chair Ranch, a 7,200-acre Montana ranch that has been in the same family for more than seven decades.
“The adult children just got to the point where they realized, ‘No, it’s time for this family to move on and do something else,” he said of the sellers behind the property, which is listed at $21.7 million.
Generational transfer of wealth
As ranching has been on the decline for decades, many multigenerational ranches have already changed hands, according to McDavid, who is based in Missoula, Montana. However, he is also seeing a rise in families looking to sell ranches they bought 20 to 30 years ago. The owners typically don’t have family ties to ranching and decided to buy trophy properties after making their fortune in tech or finance.
“For the buyer who made their money in the dot-com era, they had a grand idea about a family legacy, or whatever,” he said. “And then their kids got older, and they didn’t move to the ranch because nobody ever moved to the ranch. I mean, the dot-com guy, he came out and visited for at most the summer.”
He added of the heirs, “it was never in the cards for them to take over the ranch.”
Davis said she hopes a local ranching family will buy her California property, which has abundant grazing pastures and water sources. However, she said its likely a buyer from Silicon Valley will snap up Reynolds Ranch, which is only an hour and a half drive from San Jose and can accommodate a landing strip for a private plane.
John Onderdonk, who advises on agricultural properties for wealth manager Northern Trust, said the generational transfer of wealth is shaping the market. He is also a fourth-generation cattle rancher and said he is fortunate that his brothers agree on keeping their central California ranch in the family. However, he said many of the families he works with that choose to sell do so because of finances rather than disinterest.
“Real estate is a capital-intensive asset class, and if there isn’t liquidity in the portfolio, and the rest of the family isn’t able to support that, tough decisions come into play,” he said.
Listed at $21.7 million, Rocking Chair Ranch is on the market for the first time in over seven decades. The Philipsburg, MT, ranch spans 7,200 acres.
Courtesy of Hall and Hall
Legacy ranches, which may come with livestock and cropland, are attractive but require much due diligence, according to Ken Mirr of Mirr Ranch Group. For instance, these ranches are usually run by long-tenured managers who might leave when the property is sold and are hard to replace, said the Denver, Colorado-based broker. Or, they stay and have a rough time adjusting to new ownership, Mirr added.
“Those managers who have been here a long time start thinking that they own the place, right?” he said. “Sometimes that’s not the best person to be managing the ranch.”
Buyers expecting complete privacy can get a rude awakening. For instance, Mirr said, the previous family could have a longstanding verbal agreement with a neighbor allowing them to cross through their property. Depending on the state, members of the public may also be fish or wade in rivers located on private property, he said.
McDavid said buyers with deep pockets can have unrealistic expectations, wanting a rural property without sacrificing convenience. For instance, many want to live within 30 minutes’ driving distance of a major airport. Buyers also prefer move-in-ready properties, and multigenerational ranches may lack modern amenities.
As for the sellers, they get a windfall but aren’t able to replicate the lifestyle that comes with a legacy ranch.
“It’s just kind of a unique thing when you’re sitting on your porch and you look around and you own everything as far as your eyes can see,” Davis said. “It’s extremely difficult, the concept of losing the place, but on the other hand it’s going to make the next family very happy.”
The share prices of leading UK banks have tumbled following calls for the government to introduce a new tax on banking profits.
Traders and investors have reacted to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) saying a windfall tax could raise up to £8bn a year for the government.
The think tank said the policy would compensate taxpayers for losses on the Bank of England’s cash printing drive.
While the Treasury has not commented on any policy, concerns led to NatWest, Lloyds and Barclays being the biggest fallers on the main index of the London Stock Exchange early on Friday.
NatWest and Lloyds share prices were down by more than 4%, and Barclays had dropped by more than 3% in early trading.
Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of Lloyds bank, has previously spoken out against any potential tax rises for banks in the Budget.
He said efforts to boost the UK economy and foster a strong financial services sector “wouldn’t be consistent with tax rises”.
The Treasury has been contacted for comment.
The IPPR, a left-leaning think tank, said a levy on the profits of banks was needed as the Bank of England’s quantitative easing (QE) drive was costing taxpayers £22bn a year.
The Bank of England buys bonds – essentially long term IOUs – from the UK government and corporations to increase bond prices and reduce longer term interest rates.
The Bank is selling off some of these bonds, and the IPPR said it is now making huge losses from both selling the government bonds below their purchase value and through interest rate losses.
The IPPR described those interest rate losses as “a government subsidy to commercial banks”, and highlighted commercial bank profits compared to before the pandemic were up by $22bn.
The tax suggestion comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces the difficult task of maintaining her fiscal rules while finding room for spending promises in the upcoming autumn Budget.
Carsten Jung, associate director for economic policy at IPPR and former Bank of England economist, said the Bank and Treasury had “bungled the implementation of quantitative easing”.
“Public money is flowing straight into commercial banks’ coffers because of a flawed policy design,” he said.
“While families struggle with rising costs, the government is effectively writing multi-billion-pound cheques to bank shareholders.”
Speaking on BBC’s Today programme, Mr Jung said the £22bn taxpayer loss was roughly equivalent to “the entire budget of the Home Office every year”.
“So we’re suggesting to fix this leak of taxpayer money, and the first step would be a targeted levy on commercial banks that claws back some of these losses,” he said.
A tax targeting the windfall profits linked to QE would still leave the banks with “substantially higher profits”, the IPPR report said, while saving the government up to £8bn a year over the term of parliament.
But financial services body UK Finance said that a further tax on banks would make Britain less internationally competitive.
“Banks based here already pay both a corporation tax surcharge and a bank levy,” the trade association said.
The association said a new tax on banking would also “run counter to the government’s aim of supporting the financial services sector”.
Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, said the UK stock market had soured following the suggestion, with investors wondering “if the era of bumper profits, dividends and buybacks is now under threat”.
“The timing of the tax debate, fuelled by a report from think-tank IPPR, is unfortunate given it coincides with a new poll from Lloyds suggesting a rise in business confidence, despite cost pressures,” he said.
The Chancellor has worked hard since Labour won power to woo the City. In her Mansion House speech in November last year, Reeves said that banking regulation after the 2008 financial crisis had “gone too far”.
But she faces difficult fiscal decisions in the run-up to her budget, after the government watered down its planned welfare savings and largely reversed winter fuel allowance cuts – decisions which narrowed her budget headroom.
Business
Reliance Industries AGM 2025 Live Updates: Mukesh Ambani Set To Address 44 Lakh RIL Shareholders Shortly
Reliance AGM 2025 Live Updates: Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is set to hold its 48th Annual General Meeting (AGM) today at 2:00 pm through video conferencing (VC) and other audio-visual means (OAVM). Investors will keenly watch RIL Chairman & Managing Director Mukesh Ambani’s live speech for announcements that could shape the company’s next phase of growth across its digital, retail, and energy businesses.
The event will be livestreamed across digital platforms, including YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram, and JioEvents. The streaming will start at 2:00 pm.
(Disclaimer: Network18 and TV18 – the companies that operate news18.com – are controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.)
Vehicle breakdown specialist RAC has revealed stronger revenues and profits after it saw member numbers grow to 15 million.
The breakdown, insurance and maintenance firm reported that revenues grew by 8% to £411 million over the first half of 2025, putting it “on track” for another year of growth.
It said this included growth across each of its three main divisions.
The 128-year-old business said it is “confident” about its outlook for the rest of the year and for the longer term.
This came after membership numbers grew to 15 million from 14.1 million a year earlier.
RAC also reported that group earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation, grew by 12% to £152 million over the half-year.
The roadside assistant giant is owned by CVC Capital Partners, the Singaporean sovereign investment fund GIC and Silver Lake Partners.
Sky News reported in July that the firm’s owners were preparing to offload the business in a potential sale or stock market float, which could value the RAC at about £5 billion.
Dave Hobday, chief executive of the RAC, said: “2025 is set to be our 14th year of consecutive growth and I am delighted with our strong first-half performance and the continued progress we have made towards our vision to be the UK’s number one for driving services.
“Through our three complementary offerings: breakdown; insurance; and service, maintenance & repair; UK motorists are increasingly choosing us as their one-stop-shop at every stage of their driving journey.
“During the half-year period, we welcomed 500,000 new breakdown members and 10,000 motor insurance members, while our expanding team of mobile mechanics delivered more than double the number of repair and maintenance jobs.
“At the same time, our ongoing investment in AI, digital, and data accelerated performance across the board.”
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