‘The Northerners are keeping their hands in their pockets’
NORTH LEINSTER can often spring surprises on land prices. As a region it has everything, from tillage ground to dairy land, horticulture to forestry with some bloodstock properties thrown in for fair measure.
In 2015 the region had a bumper year with a 97pc increase in the amount of land sold; last year the region found itself down.
A total of 2,567ac was sold at auction, down 21pc on the previous 12 months. The region also suffered the greatest drop in the per acre price, which fell 8.5pc to €9,238/ac.
The biggest farm sold under the hammer in the region was a 234ac tillage holding belonging to the former Attorney General, John Rogers.
Located at Gilltown near Slane the farm is the best of tillage ground. The holding also has plenty of road frontage divided as it is by a public road leaving 66ac at one side and 166ac at the other. The holding was sold in two lots by Navan auctioneer Raymond Potterton making a total of €2.5m or €10,600/ac. The same auctioneer handled another notable sale in the region when a 94ac residential farm at Fordstown, Co Meath made €1,450,000 under the hammer.
A 227ac farm at Derrynagarragh in Westmeath was the next biggest sale, realising €1.3m when auctioned by Murtagh Bros, Mullingar. Described as a place with great potential but in need of a lot of work, the property was initially offered in lots but sold to a local farmer in its entirety.
Another farm to break the €1m barrier was a 117ac grass and tillage residential farm at Mullaghroe, Slane in Co Meath. It made €1.17m under Thomas Potterton’s hammer.
Across in Co Longford a 153ac non-residential grass farm at Granard also made over €1m when it was sold by Murtagh Bros, Mullingar for €1.152m. In another €1m sale a 92ac farm at Ballymacoll, Dunboyne in Co Meath was sold by Willie Coonan for €1.07m or €11,400/ac.
The highest per acre price for land in this survey across all the regions was paid under the hammer for a 16.3 residential farm at Drumree in Co Meath, where auctioneer John Bannon sold the property for €420,000 or €25,800/ac.
A 25ac residential farm at Ross, Tara in Co Meath made another strong price when it was sold by Raymond Potterton for €560,000 or €22,400/ac.
Gordon Cobbe of GVM Tullamore believes that the overall mood in 2016 wasn’t very conducive to auction sales.
“We prefer to sell by public auction,” he said, “it’s a cleaner operation but we find ourselves cherry-picking the properties to put under the hammer.
“This year we veered more towards the private treaty route because, among other things, there aren’t a lot of active buyers around.”
Mr Cobbe has noticed a lot more interest in land as an investment on the part of non-farming buyers,
“These people want a safe haven for their investments and they also want to take advantage of the tax breaks for land leasing and they prefer the private treaty sale because they prefer not to be known.”
He also noted a clear increase in interest in forestry land with the price of planting ground now break- ing the €5,000 to €5,200/ac mark.
“Paying this kind of money for planting land was unheard of not very long ago,” he said. “Now when we advertise planting ground for prices like this we have no shortage of enquiries.”
Kells auctioneer Robert Nixon said young people returning to family holdings which looked be destined for the market was a factor in the fall-off of land sales. “Establishing entitlements is a big issue for young farmers. Also around here in North Leinster Brexit is having a significant impact.
“The Northerners are gone out of the market and are keeping their hands in their pockets till they see how this thing works out,” he said.