Farmland values remain high – despite Budget uncertainty

• Higher number of farms for sale

• Average land values still robust

• Strong demand for arable units

The value of farmland in England remains close to record levels, despite an increase in farms for sale and uncertainty in the run-up to the Autumn Budget.

Average arable land prices for 2024 remain at £11,000/acre, only slightly lower than the £11,200/acre recorded across 2023. And more than half of all pasture land now sells for £8,000/acre or more with the average around £9,300/acre.

“Prime farms in locations where there tend to be wealthy buyers continue to sell well and often over the guide price,” says Sam Holt, Head of Estates & Farm Agency for Strutt & Parker, which published the figures.

“Smaller blocks of bare land can also command very high prices, often being bought by farmers with rollover money who are highly motivated when they see a neighbour has land for sale.”

Second tier

But Mr Holt added: “The feeling among agents is that demand has eased since the frenzy of the post-Covid period of 2021/22. This means there is a second tier of farms, which can be extremely good quality but in less popular areas, which are taking longer to sell.”

Strutt & Parker’s Farmland Database records the sale of all farms, estates and blocks of publicly marketed land in England over 100 acres in size. It shows 86,200 acres were offered for sale publicly during the first nine months of the year.

This is the second highest amount of farmland offered for sale in 10 years. Supply is above average in most regions, but particularly high in south-west England and the East Midlands.

Retirement plans

The number of properties for sale is the highest since 2015 – with more larger farms and estates available. To date, there have been 24 farms of over 500 acres new on the market and 12 over 1,000 acres – higher than usual.

An increasing proportion of vendors are looking to retire, says Mr Holt, with speculation ahead of the Autumn Budget about possible changes to inheritance tax, capital gains tax, agricultural property relief and stamp duty.

“There was a concerted effort across almost all sales agreed so far this year, to get transactions exchanged under the pre-Budget tax regime. It has been one of the many attractions of buying UK farmland.”