Farmland prices appear to have stabilised, with marginal increase

THE price of farmland seems to have stabilised, and, if anything, is showing a very marginal increase in some parts of the country, according to a report published yesterday by independent global property consultants Knight Frank Ireland, formerly Ganly Walters.

A national survey on agricultural land price performance for the first six months of 2010, carried out by the company, shows that the price for agricultural land across the entire country is averaging €10,131 per acre.

In this latest survey of agricultural land sales, the first mid-year survey to be undertaken by the estate agency, it was found prices have increased nationally by about €450 per acre on average this year.

The national average price paid for farmland was €9,678 per acre for the whole of 2009, as shown by the Knight Frank Ireland national annual survey findings for all of that year.

In this latest mid-term survey, predictably, the Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow region had the highest average price at just over €16,139 per acre.

This is significantly up from the 2009 survey findings, which showed an overall value of €10,920 per acre.

However, this latest mid-term survey takes into account transactions that took place in Co Dublin in the first half of 2010, while there were none in 2009.

The second average highest price paid for agricultural land was not surprisingly in the south-east region which includes counties Kilkenny, Wexford and Carlow, where the value of an acre this year averaged €13,334.

The lowest was in the north-west region (counties Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Galway and Roscommon) with the average price paid was €7,039 per acre.

Prices averaged €11,947 per acre in the north-east region of Louth and Monaghan while they averaged €8,911 per acre in the midlands (Meath, Westmeath, Offaly, Longford and Laois)

The south-west region, comprising Cork, Tipperary, Kerry and Limerick, averaged €8,591 per acre.

These latest figures are based on a basket of 44 sales, comprising 3,181 acres, which sold for a total of €32.2 million. They reflect sales that have taken place from January 1 to June 20, 2010.

Knight Frank Ireland’s Robert Ganly said agricultural land prices are now stabilising after significant drops approaching 50% in the years 2008 and 2009.