In Ireland, land is an emotive subject. Just ask the Bull McCabe. As such, accurately valuing agricultural land in this country is complex and often outside of rational economics.

Aside from the quality of the land, its productivity and the number of buyers interested, there are other unique complexities such as family tradition, history and the rarity of the opportunity to acquire land in Ireland, that all have a major bearing on the price of farmland here.

But is this the case in other countries or is farmland outside of Ireland valued on the merits of its economic potential?

Europe

It has often been said that farmland in Ireland is the most expensive in the world. This is not true, however. Ireland doesn’t even have the most expensive farmland in Europe, let alone the world.

As can be seen in the map, the country with the most expensive farmland in Europe by a considerable distance is the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, where every inch of ground is used to its maximum potential, land prices on average will fetch over €26,000/ac. On the higher end of the scale, Dutch farmland has been known to cost up €33,000/ac.

Like Ireland, family farms are the backbone of the country’s agriculture sector, meaning land only comes for sale once every few generations. This shortage of supply, coupled with the intensive nature of Dutch farming in such a small corner of Europe (the Netherlands is only the size of Munster), means the Netherlands can claim the title as having Europe’s most expensive farmland.

The second most expensive land in Europe can be found in Italy. Again, family farms are the backbone of Italian agriculture, meaning land does not sell freely. However, the real reason Italian land prices are the second highest in Europe is because of its huge wine industry.

You will find vineyards the length and breadth of Italy where the right soil type and a south-facing slope makes land extremely expensive. The average land price in Italy is about €16,000/ac. However, there is huge variation within this average.

The most expensive land in Italy can fetch as much as €45,000/ac. These eye-watering prices are paid for land in world-renowned wine regions such as Abruzzo, Tuscany, Piedmont and Lombardy. The cheapest land in Italy will sell for about €8,000/ac.

Just across the Irish Sea, agricultural land sells for similar prices to here. The average price of farmland in Britain ranges from a top of €12,000/ac for arable land to €8,000/ac for pasture.

Interestingly, outside investment in farmland by hedge funds and investors looking to tie up cash in safe assets has seen the price of land in some parts of England soar to highs of €15,000/ac.

Lower values

At the lower end of the scale in Europe in terms of average land prices, it’s no surprise to see countries in Eastern Europe such as Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Romania.

In these countries, private ownership of land is a relatively new concept following decades under communist rule.

Many of them are also vast countries where scale in farming is essential to survive. Because farmers need access to large amounts of land to build a commercially viable farm, the cost may seem low on a per-acre basis but when taken as a whole the overall investment required is still significant.

La Roche, Projet de Salers in the Massif Central, France. Average land prices in France are less than €5,000/ac.

In Poland, the average price of tillage land is less than €4,000/ac. Further east in Romania, some of the most fertile and productive in the world (black earth soils) can be bought for as little as €500/ac.

Interestingly, the average price of land in France is quite low when measured against other major European agricultural nations.

According to the data from the European Commission, average land prices in France are less than €5,000/ac, which is very low when considering the quality and productivity of farmland in certain parts of France. It’s likely this figure does not include prices paid for land in the French wine regions, which are known to be enormous.

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