Despite the average price easing back last year by 11%, or £2,174/ac, Armagh remains the most expensive county in NI to buy land and ranks second across the island of Ireland.

Our survey found the average price paid for land in the county during 2023 stood at £17,601/ac, which is down from 2022’s record high of £19,775/ac.

The supply of land in Armagh is incredibly tight and shrank further last year. Our figures show that just 782ac was publicly advertised for sale during 2023 – that’s 42% less than 2022.

When taken as a proportion of its overall grassland and arable area, the figures show that only 0.35% of the agricultural area in Armagh was advertised for sale last year.

There were 40 parcels of land publicly offered up in the county during 2023. This makes the average lot size 20ac, which is well down from the 2022 average of 28ac.

Our records show 37% of agricultural properties on the market in Armagh last year either had a dwelling house or had planning permission for a new or replacement dwelling. It means 63% of farms that were advertised for sale in 2023 were classified as non-residential.

Top price

The top price recorded in our survey was just over £27,000/ac for a 30ac block of top-quality farmland with traditional out-buildings.

The lowest price recorded was £5,210/ac for a small 7ac parcel of heavy land in the north of the county.

It is noteworthy that not many sale results were recorded at the high and low extremes of the price spectrum. We found that 20% of transactions were over £20,000/ac and 27% were below £15,000/ac. It means the majority of sales (53%) fell within the £15,000-20,000/ac bracket.