A farmer bid to €38,500/ac for farmland outside Portlaoise, Co Laois last month, an auctioneer from Sherry Fitzgerald Hyland Keating told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The farmer, who was in at €500,000, lost out to the winning bid of a developer who secured the 13ac site in Clonkeen for €510,000, Neala Keating said.

This is the equivalent of €39,200/ac.

The land was located near Junction 18 off the M7/M8, on the edge of Portlaoise town and is not zoned. It is about 1km away from any zoned areas, according to Keating.

“It’s probably one of the highest we’ve ever seen a farmer bid for agricultural land before,” Keating said.