Strutt & Parker's James Laing is about to launch a pair of adjoining scenic chalk arable farms in north Kent.

Upper Bush and Dean Farms at Cuxton, near Rochester, which total 522 acres, are being sold by cement company Cemex following the end of a tenancy. "The firm is tidying up its assets," said Mr Laing.

Part of the Grade 3 land was used as a chalk quarry, but this had now been back-filled and restored with soil. "There was a time when cement companies were buying every farm with chalk on it," Mr Laing said.

Neither of the farms comes with a house, but 143-acre Dean Farm has planning consent to convert an oast house and timber-framed barn into four-bed dwellings.

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Mr Laing said a traditional threshing barn on Upper Bush Farm also offered some conversion potential.

There is also a well-known shoot across the farms - which have a combined 94 acres of woodland, 300 acres under arable production and 120 acres of pasture - and adjoining land.

Mr Laing has guided the sale, which will be lotted five ways, at £2.75m. No individual guide prices have been set yet, but he has valued the land at £4000-£5000/acre. Single farm payments are not included in the sale.

He said the farms would either be bought by a local farmer looking for more land or an investor from London who would have them contract-farmed.

"It's a great opportunity for somebody who wants to buy land and not put half their money into houses," said Mr Laing, who reckoned farmland values would carry on rising despite the global credit crunch.