More agricultural land was offered up for sale in NI during 2022, the Irish Farmers Journal can reveal.

There were 12,716 acres publicly advertised on the market, representing an increase of 7% or 831ac compared to the year previous.

Overall, 452 separate parcels of land were available to buy across NI during 2022, which makes the average property equate to 28 acres in size.

However, the supply of land coming on the market remains extremely tight, with the 2022 total representing only 0.6% of the overall agricultural land area in NI.

Our records, which span the past five calendar years, show that the total acreage for sale was highest in 2018 when 16,078 acres were offered up.

This gradually fell over the next two years and bottomed out at 11,812ac in 2020. There was a marginal increase the area offered up in 2021, and this has been followed by a much more pronounced rise in 2022.

County breakdown

Across NI counties, Armagh had by far the biggest increase in land area available on the market. There were 1,352 acres advertised for sale in the county, which represents an 89% increase when compared to 2021 levels.

The largest area of land available to buy was in Tyrone, where 3,254ac were on the market.

However, Tyrone is the biggest county in NI geographically and the total acres for sale equate to just 0.67% of its overall agricultural area.

The NI county with the largest proportion of its farmland on offer during 2022 was Fermanagh. There were 1,832ac advertised for sale, which is 0.69% of its total grassland and arable area.

Down has the tightest land market accordingly, with only 0.48% of its agricultural area on the market in 2022. Overall, the county had 1,907ac advertised for sale across 85 separate lots.

The only county to see a reduction in the area of land available to buy was Antrim. There were 2,604ac on the market during 2022, which represents an 11% reduction year on year.

The land market in Derry followed the overall NI trend during 2022, as the 1,766ac that were offered up for sale equate to a 7% rise year on year.

Land types

Our land records are made up of all properties that were advertised for sale in newspapers and online throughout the year. Only land which can be described as good quality grazing, suitable for silage, or arable grade is included in the main dataset.

A separate record of hill land and rough grazing is also compiled. It shows that 1,444ac were offered up for sale across NI during 2022, which is 25% lower than the year previous. There were 19 separate lots of hill land on the market, which makes the average property 76 acres in size.