Buyers seeking ‘degraded’ land
‘DEGRADED’ hill ground is often commanding a premium compared to well-managed land, according to Faye Gonzalez, director or rural management at Savills, who was speaking at a seminar in Aberdeen, this week.
As buyers look to maximise the opportunity to enrich biodiversity and capture carbon, land which is in disrepair can be more appealing than areas kept in good health, she said: “Badly degraded land is getting more money than well managed land as purchasers can enact improvements. They are looking to do their own projects.”
Land markets remain firm across all the sectors, with hill and upland farms and estates rising by four times in value over the last three years. Despite demand for forestry and environmental projects, the majority of buyers of farms are still in agriculture.
However, the Savills’ expert said estates continued to have a wide range of buyers. Where before many upland estates were valued on the number of grouse, stags and hill land, valuers now need to take peatland restoration, tree planting and biodiversity into consideration before setting a price.
These competing interests had driven prices up and pushed many traditional buyers of estates for shooting and fishing to delve deep in the pockets to purchase. Foreign buyers were still attracted to Scotland, though, according to Mrs Gonzalez, with most coming from the US and Northern Europe attracted by large tracts of lands in Scottish estates.
Many foreign buyers are seeking 10,000 acres plus with the aim of delivering landscape regenerative, or carbon capture projects with few estates of that scope available on the market in Europe for similar prices.
All these competing interests for land resulted in an increase in Scottish land changing hands, with 250,000 acres selling in 2022 – up from a five-year average of 80,000 acres. Savills said the bare land price for prime arable ground in Scotland is changing hands just short of £10,000 per acre, with average arable land between £6000£9000. Aberdeenshire’s prime land is closer to £7000 acre with averages between £5500-£6500.
Temporary grass across Scotland ranged from £3000£6000 per acre, with English livestock land between £6500 and £8500. Permanent pasture prices were £2500-£5000 per acre, with Aberdeenshire £2000£5000.
Rough grazing and hill land, which has seen the greatest rise in recent times is being sold for anything between £500-£5000 per acre, with England not selling any such land at less than £2500 per acre.