Falling milk prices, squeezed margins for tillage farmers and bad weather look to have hit the farmland market last year. The Irish Farmers Journal Agricultural Land Price Report 2023 – which is free in today’s paper – shows that average land prices fell by 2.9% to €11,925/ac last year.

Many auctioneers reported that the market became more difficult in the second half of the year. This was when falling prices and bad harvest weather impacted most. Last year’s was the first drop in price after seven years of growth. The total area of land that sold last year also fell, to 28,260ac, a decrease of some 4,562ac.

Land Report 2023

Hidden behind the national average, prices rose in some counties and fell in others. They rose strongly in Cavan, Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Limerick, Leitrim, Longford, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford. Prices fell most sharply in counties Mayo, Monaghan and Offaly.

The gap between the dearest and cheapest counties widened last year. The changes in supply and selling prices in each county are detailed in the Land Report 2023 magazine.

Trends

In other trends, top-end marquee properties were in strong demand – international buyers and home-based investors competed for the best country estates. As usual, most of those sales were conducted by private treaty with neither the price nor the identity of buyer becoming public knowledge. Also as normal, these property sales were generally excluded from our calculations.

Dairy farmers were again active in the market, buying bigger holdings of better land. The top prices were often seen where two expansion-minded dairy farmers went head-to-head to acquire that extra bit of land. And that was one reason why public auctions performed strongly last year, regularly delivering prices of over €20,000/ac for the vendor. Online auctions did well.

Also in the Land Report 2023, our team of writers assess what’s likely to happen ahead on the nitrates derogation; outline uptake of the new forestry programme; detail how the new EU payment schemes are impacting on farmland; and assess what lies ahead for renewable energy farms.