Price of land falls 7 per cent

THE AVERAGE price of agricultural land in County Wexford in 2017 fell by seven per cent to €10,970 an acre compared to €11,729 an acre a year earlier, according to a survey of agricultural land prices nationally published by the Irish Farmers Journal. The report said the supply of agricultural land in the county was up with 2,972 acres offered for sale, up from the 1,946 acres offered for sale in 2016.

AND it said it will be interesting to see if the recent poor grain prices will hinder tillage farmers capability to compete with dairy farmers for land. The report said the national average land price in Ireland in 2017 was €9,088 and acre, up 3.61 per cent on 2016 figures of €8,771 an acre and the total value of land transactions was €313 million (+5% year on year). 33,864 acres were recorded as sold: 43.2 per cent of the 78,350 acres offered for sale.

IT said 2017 was a strong year for land prices saw value increase in 19 counties, with just seven counties seeing a price fall. Kildare had the highest agricultural land value in 2017 at €14,020 an acre, while Leitrim was the least expensive county for land at €4,586 an acre. It said non-farmers were a major source of competition for land bought as investments in 2017.