WATER costs on dried-off properties are driving farmers off their land.

Delivery shares on properties in northern Victoria - which are virtually untradeable - are being paid on many properties that don't use water.

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A delivery share gives the landowner the right to buy water, but the bill arrives every year even if the property is dried off. And real estate agents say the delivery shares are driving down property prices.

Shearer and crop farmer Ian Watson said the $8000 a year delivery share was a big part of the reason he and his wife were leaving farming.

Goulburn Murray Water gives delivery share to landholders who request it for free, which Mr Watson said made the shares untradeable. "We've tried to get rid of it," he said.

GMW took fees from 379 non-water users in 2007-08 - last year it charged 1051.

Delivery share prices have risen 83 per cent in the Loddon part of the system and 40 per cent in the Shepparton part of the system, where Mr Watson farms, since 2007-08.

Youngs and Co Real Estate Shepparton director Wes Young said the delivery charges on dryland properties were likely affecting both demand for them and prices offered.

"It's only logical that people have to look at what they pay for (affected properties)," Mr Young said.

Murray MP Sharman Stone said Victoria needed to move into water licence holder-owned co-operatives as NSW, South Australia and Western Australia had.

She said GMW having 700 employees was "ridiculous".

"Ian and Catherine (Watson) are the next generation of farmers we need to keep," Ms Stone said.

"But the fees and charges of this state-owned monopoly are driving them to the edge."

GMW acting manager modernised irrigation Phillip Hoare said GMW had "sympathy" for Mr Watson and his family. He could pay a termination fee to end the delivery share, he said.

Mr Watson said it would be $70,000.

Mr Hoare said delivery shares ensured costs did not balloon for irrigators staying in the system when water was traded out.

Mr Watson said irrigators should be charged an exit fee when properties were dried off so cost was more fairly spread.