Land prices fell slightly in Co Longford last year. Our average was €9,530/ac, down from €9,811/ac the year before. The decrease was €281/ac, or 3%.

Supply of land for sale was up. We examined 64 farms and parcels that were put up for sale with 1,983ac, up from the 56 farms on 1,778ac the year before.

As usual, these were a mix of land types and quality. Finally, we did our calculations on 30 holdings that had sold by year end and met our criteria. This compared to 22 the year before.

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For those farms sold by year end, prices ranged from €4,063/ac to €25,000/ac.

Typical selling prices now for good grassland in the county are in the range of €8,000/ac to €10,000/ac.

Clean boundaries

Parcels with water laid on and good clean boundaries are at the higher end of that range.

Top land, well located, and with strong farming neighbours, can fetch up to €15,000/ac.

Dairy farmers and part-time farmers, mostly involved in drystock, are the most active buyers.

Among the notable sales, James L Murtagh Auctioneers sold a 91.5ac residential farm near Ballymahon, Co Longford, at auction for €1.6m.

The holding at Forgney was offered in lots, but sold in the entire. The holding came with a 1,993 sq ft dormer bungalow with eight bedrooms – we just used the land value in our calculations.

Savills sold the very pleasant Antly House on 25ac at Ballymahon, by private treaty.

It was described as a Tudor Revival residence.

Padraic Davis Auctioneers sold a good number of holdings by private treaty, some exceeding the county average price while Murtagh Bros, Drake Auctioneers, Dalton Auctioneers and Marie J McCormack all had private treaty farmland sales.