‘I am aware of 1,000 acres of tillage that’s being turned to grassland’
Leinster netting €8.842m, down significantly on the €12.736m generated during the same period last year. The per acre price comes in at €9,216/ ac slipping from €11,747 in the same period in 2017 representing a decline of 21pc.
The best price for land in the region was achieved when Raymond Potterton auctioneer saw €20,000/ac paid for 10ac with a derelict house at Oristown near Kells in Co Meath.
Coonans of Maynooth handled a sale that saw the next best price paid. A 62ac farm at Kilglynn in Kilcock, Co Meath sold under the hammer making €890,000 or €14,354/ ac. In one of the bigger sales a 91ac farm near Edenderry in Co Offaly was sold by Matt Dunne making a fine €12,250/ ac. The elevated roadside farm is made up of good dry ground and it is unusual for a farm of this size to achieve a strong per acre price like this.
The largest farm to sell under the hammer in the region was a 135ac holding near Edenderry that sold under the gavel of Wilsons Auctions for €1.03m making €7,630/ac. The next large farm to sell was a 120ac non-residential farm at Ballinacor in Co Westmeath which made €790,000 or €6583/ac under the gavel of Dillon Murtagh.
Gordon Cobbe of GVM Tullamore says the market in the region is far more buoyant than the auction season so far suggests. “The auction route is not the chosen route anymore, people are going private treaty more and more,” he said.
Mr Cobbe sees a big move away from tillage to milk in the Offaly area. “I am aware of 1,000ac of tillage land in three farms that is currently being turned to grassland for dairying. We have a big sale of tillage machinery coming up shortly,” he said, “a sign that people are moving out of the sector.”
Coonan auctioneers who straddle the North and South Leinster regions had a good, if late, early auction season. Philip Byrne of Coonans says there is still great demand for land. “We have sold most of what is on our books either at auction or very soon afterwards. Often the post auction sales are forgotten but they do happen. There is strong local demand and that is crucial for the market”, he said.