Supply of farmland for sale fell again in Leitrim in 2021, for the second year in a row. We tracked 14 holdings for sale, down from 22 the previous year and from 52 in 2019.

The total area offered for sale last year was 310ac, down from 633ac and 1,541ac in those earlier years. It’s a downward trend.

No doubt the drop in availability of farmland was a factor behind a significant increase in average price. It rose to €6,118/ac, up from €4,391/ac. A factor was that most of the holdings put on the market last year were good grazing land, with just a handful that were either rough grazing land or forestry.

Holding size was small, with 11 of them under 40ac and only three over 40ac. Two of the holdings were residential, one of them a derelict house that would not be adding greatly to value.

All of the holdings we tracked were offered by private treaty and we cannot disclose many individual details.

The top price paid was €10,370/ac and this was a 13ac holding that was bought by a dairy farmer.

One other holding made €10,000/ac. This 10ac parcel was purchased by a business person. Both of these properties sold by private treaty.

All 14 of the holdings were sold, indicating good demand. Beef and other drystock farmers were the dominant buyers. They bought more than one-third (36%) of the holdings sold in the county.

But business people with non-farming money are nowadays important buyers in all border counties. This category of buyer purchased a further quarter (27%) of the holdings sold.

The remaining farms were bought by dairy, mixed enterprise and sheep farmers.