Agricultural land sales dropped by almost 9% in 2024
The median price of land sold was €9,988 per acre in 2024.
In 2024, the area of land which changed hands last year fell by almost 9%, according to the latest official figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
According to the CSO, 57,212 acres of agricultural land were sold in Ireland in 2024, a drop of 8.9% from the 62,823 acres sold in 2023. The median price of the 57,212 acres sold was €9,988 per acre.
Commenting on the release, Niall Corkery, statistician in the Prices Division, said: “In 2024, 57,212 acres of agricultural land were sold nationally, a decrease of 8.9% on the 62,823 acres sold in 2023, and down 8.1% on the 62,274 acres sold in 2022. The median price per acre was €9,988 in 2024, 10.3% higher than in 2023 when it was €9,053.”
The national median price per acre of arable land was €17,898, an increase of 9.4% from the value achieved in 2023 of €16,362. The median price for permanent grassland, land used permanently (for five or more years) to grow herbaceous forage crops, was €9,623 per acre.
From the total 57,212 acres, 3,289 (5.7%) of those acres were arable land, and the remaining 53,924 acres (94.3%) of agricultural land sold was permanent grassland.
The highest volume of land sold was in the West, with a total of 12,782 acres in the region. The West also had the lowest median price per acre at €7,027.
The lowest volume of agricultural land sold was in Dublin, at 475 acres, and the South-East, which includes Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford, at 4,517 acres. The highest median prices per acre were also listed in Dublin and the South-East at €24,125 and €14,991, respectively.
Purchasers in the Mid-West region, which includes Clare, Limerick and Tipperary, spent €94.9m on agricultural land, which is more than any other region.
In the Dublin region, €14.5m was spent on agricultural land, and €57.3m in the Border region, which includes Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo, as part of the CSO report.
The mean price of an acre of agricultural land was the highest in Dublin and the South-East regions, where it reached €30,524 and €15,391, respectively. The mean price in the Border region was €5,857 per acre, the lowest in the country.
In the South-West region, which comprises Cork and Kerry, the median price per acre was €10,914 on all land types in 2024, with a total of 8,233 acres being sold.
Arable land had a median price per acre of €19,741, with a total of 333 acres being sold, and the remainder 7,900 acres, which were classified as permanent grassland, had a median price of €10,487.
Total value of land sold in the South-West region amounted to €90.8m in 2024, with arable land amounting to €7.3m, and permanent grassland equating the remainder €83.45m.
