Irish buy more and more farms in UK
However, it’s probably farmers from north of the border who are leading the “invasion”, with Northern Ireland farmers reckoned to have been frequent buyers in the south west of Scotland.
“With Irish land being sold for residential development, Irish farmers are taking advantage of relatively cheap farmland in the UK,” said RICS spokeswoman Sue Steer.
British farmland prices rose 9%, year-on-year, during the second quarter of 2006, according to the RICS rural market survey.
“Investment from Ireland and elsewhere has led to demand outstripping supply,” Steer said.
As a result, farmland prices have reached the highest levels in the survey’s history.
Ireland has seen a huge boom in property values in recent years, sending Irish property investors to all parts of Europe and around the world in search of property to buy.
But city dwellers are also outbidding locals for residential land in the British countryside.
According to the RICS survey, farm land prices in the second quarter of 2006 averaged £7,389 per hectare (€4,758 per acre) in England and Wales. Arable land averaged £7,639, pasture €7,139 per hectare.
Rental rates ranged from £104 to £167 per hectare (€63 to €101 per acre).
Chartered surveyors interviewed for the RICS survey included C E A Haselwood at Banbury, Oxfordshire who commented, “No money to be made from occupying land, but everyone seems to want to buy it. The Irish, the wealthy landowning farmer and as ever, those with more money than they need.”
In Scotland, R H Gladstone said, “Spring and early summer saw an increase in number of farms available for sale. Prices remain firm, with some particularly high prices paid by Irish farmers for dairy and stock farms in the Stranraer area,” and C W Grieve said, “Generally demand greater than supply, where Irish buyers paying premiums for dairy farms which is encouraging sellers. Demand for residential properties with land still high.”
