A 37.5ac grassland farm is on the market near Kilmacow in south Co Kilkenny. The land is at Flemingstown and it’s for sale by private treaty from Waterford city-based auctioneers Brophy Cusack.

It is located 5km from Mooncoin and 7km from Waterford city. Land in the general area is good quality. The holding for sale is laid out in seven main divisions and it has 70m of frontage on the public road. It is in permanent pasture.

The land is currently farmed under a long-term lease which runs for another three years, ending in December 2024. The tenant is unaffected by the sale of the land. The lease details are available on request to any potential purchaser. The land is being farmed to a high standard.

This is an executor sale and the asking price is €490,000 or €13,066/ac. Auctioneer Jeffrey Brophy says that there is already a strong offer on this farm and a number of other interested parties.

To locate the farm, when traveling from Waterford to Mooncoin on the N24, take a right turn at the Roadstone site and then a left-hand turn just before the entrance to Roadstone. Follow this road for 1km and the property will be on the left.

Long-term lease farms

In the coming years we are likely to see more farms up for sale that are operating under a long-term lease. The number of leases put in place increased in the past decade, driven by income tax incentives and the desire by active farmers to expand.

Many of the landowners who have taken this option were coming to retirement age. The passage of time means that such farms are now coming on to the market. In many cases, the sitting tenant will not be effected – that is they can continue to farm the land until the lease expires.

Auctioneers believe that this will influence a farm sale. For example, if the number of years remaining on a lease is relatively small – as in the case here where three years remain – this will not discourage an active neighbouring farmer from seeking to buy. If the lease has a high number of years to run, that may put off some potential farmer buyers.

On the other hand, a running lease will make a farm of interest to investors. With interest rates so low, there are such buyers around. The level of annual rent will be one of the factors that influence the price they will be willing to pay.