Why land buyers are mixing grape and grain

While farmland prices have faltered over recent years, Rupert Bates finds that buyers in the South East haven’t lost their bottle

Breaking NEWS: leading land agent says earth is flat, causing turmoil on hill and moor as grouse and high-bird pheasants slammed as fraudulent sport.

Sorry, i read that wrong. Strutt & Parker has informed me, after two years of gradual decline, that English land, specifically farmland, is levelling out – in terms of prices.

“Since its peak in 2015, the average price of English arable land has fallen back, mostly as a result of continued pressure on farm incomes. However, our most recent analysis suggests that land prices have started to stabilise,” says Michael Fiddes of Strutt & Parker.

The average price paid for arable land in the second quarter of this year was £8,400 an acre, while pasture prices stabilised at £7,700 an acre.

“Farms are generally taking longer to sell, particularly the smaller units of 100 to 500 acres. But some of the larger blocks of ground are selling quickly and well. One factor is more activity in the market from buyers looking to rollover windfall funds from the sale of residential development land,” says Fiddes, with lifestyle buyers and private investors playing an increasing role in the market.

an interesting growth area in South-east England has been land for vineyards, with English sparkling wines continuing to upset the French. knight Frank is not quite seeing the same numbers as Strutt & Parker, reporting that the average value of bare agricultural land in England and Wales fell by 1.7% to £7,313 an acre in the second quarter of 2017, although recent sales in southern and central England have seen a rebound, approaching £10,000 an acre.

The knight Frank Farmland index dates back to 1944. Values, if you go back five years, are 16% up; 10 years 97%; and, if you reverse the tractor 50 years, today’s values are more than 4,000% higher.

in Scotland, knight Frank reports that farmland values rose in the first six months of this year – up 0.6% to £4,253 an acre. Performance was dependent on land type, with good arable and hill land doing best, with values rising by 2% to £9,200 an acre and £707 an acre respectively.

Meanwhile, Jackson-stops & Staff has been crunching the numbers in English rural villages. Manor houses average just over £1.4 million but at £190 per square foot are the best value for size. a “chocolate box” cottage may be the least expensive property type at around £600,000 but comes in at £320 a square foot, while a barn conversion averages £325 per square foot. an average English rectory or vicarage is priced at nearly £1.3 million, with the average Uk house price at £218,000.

i’m off on an above average village pub crawl to check the figures are robust, my feet are square and the earth is flat.