Published: 14/08/2023 By Andrew Tuffin
Land values are currently defying the trend of most other property assets. Since the Truss/Kwarteng minibudget, the ongoing war in Ukraine, increases in the cost of living and persistent interest rate rises, the residential and commercial property markets have been constantly adjusting with guide price reductions becoming frequent in less desirable urban areas.However average land values across England grew by around 10% in 2022 and expectations were for this to continue in 2023 with demand remaining strong. A wet Spring meant several launches were delayed and since then supply has increased with 5% more land available than in 2022.
Demand is being driven by landowners and farmers with capital to rollover from selling often large blocks of land for development. We may see this reduce with a small slowdown in volume and pressure on developers’ margins. Institutional and private investors and charities are becoming more active. There is much talk of the increase in natural capital buyers as another class of investor and we are certainly registering more such buyers, however, premium prices are difficult to extract.
Farmers, still the dominant buyers, are being more cautious if borrowing, therefore purely commercial farms or blocks of land need to be priced correctly to generate interest.
Our highlight of instructions in 2023 is the 952-acre Preston Farm near Blandford (pictured), the largest farm in Dorset this year. Offered in 9 lots the farm attracted huge interest nationally and locally with several offers resulting in a sale being agreed over the £14m guide. In April 130 acres of arable land and woodland near Somerton were sold to 3 investor buyers achieving an average of £11,500 per acre. In early summer we agreed the sales of several ‘best-in-class’ residential and equestrian farms in excess of the guide. However, it has not been all plain sailing with some residential weighted farms generating good interest but still available.
If you are considering selling or buying, Symonds & Sampson’s dedicated farm agents can offer the national coverage and unrivalled local and industry knowledge to help. Please contact Andrew Tuffin, Partner & Head of Farm Agency at Symonds & Sampson. Contact him on 01258 472244 or our farm agents in your nearest office. (below)
