The average price of farmland in Ireland, excluding Dublin, stood at €8,950/ac in the first three months of 2021, the Sherry Fitzgerald Irish agricultural land market review shows.

Following similar levels of strong growth in the final quarter of 2020, values have now increased 2% over a six-month period, with values increasing by €175/ac on average in that time frame.

Growth has been strongest in the midwest (+3%) and midlands (+2.8%) in the year to date, with an increase in values also recorded in the southeast (+1.1%) and southwest (+0.8%).

Land values remained the highest in the mideast at approximately €10,700/ac, while values were the lowest in the west, at approximately €6,200/ac.

Despite a slow start, land market activity quickened in March, with associate director of Sherry country homes, farms and estates Philip Guckian saying that there is good buyer interest in land and demand is strong.

Supply

“Last year saw very low levels of new supply coming to the market, predominantly due to COVID-19 and the national lockdowns.

"However, other developments, such as vendors leasing their lands for longer periods due to strong rental returns, also factored.

“The market has yet to recover this supply, with the volume of farms and land currently for sale remaining greatly below demand.

Agricultural land price review Q1 2021 \ Sherry Fitzgerald

“Potential vendors are currently adopting a wait-and-see approach, but if strong prices continue to be achieved, we may see more stock brought to the market,” he said.

Demand

Guckian said that demand is strongest for prime grazing land, driven by robust performance of the dairy sector.

“That being said, demand is also very good for tillage lands and small residential farms up to 100ac.

"Due to the lack of supply, many buyers have been forced to search well outside their local areas to find good-quality land,” he said.

Arable land and grassland

Price growth in the opening three months of 2021 has been brisk for both good-quality tillage and grassland, Guckian said.

“Prime arable values rose by 1.2% to the end of March. This was the strongest rate of the three farm types measured in the barometer, and the strongest rate of quarterly growth in prime arable land in six years.

"Of the regions, the midlands saw the largest increase in quarter one at 3.4%.

“Prime grassland saw marginally weaker growth in the quarter at 1%. However, growth over a six-month period has been stronger at 2.3%.

"Poorer-quality or marginal grassland also grew in Q1, rising 0.5%. Again, growth was strongest in the midlands, with the average values of prime grassland increasing 3.7% in the first quarter,” he said.

Guckian added that the weighted average price of prime arable land in Ireland, excluding Dublin, was approximately €10,800/ac, while prime and marginal grassland was approximately €10,000 and €6,000/ac respectively.