Arable buyers get more choice of land for sale

Commercial arable land buyers at last have a wider choice of offerings, ranging from a 1,024-acre Cotswold farm to a mix of decent-sized bare land blocks across several counties.

Freelands Farm at Westwell in Oxfordshire has a large five-bedroom main house and a very large range of modern farm buildings, including grain storage for about 4,000t.

The Grade 3 land is Elmton 1 and Elmton 3 series, mainly in a combinable crop rotation, and has been farmed in-hand. There is about 935 acres of cropping land and the holding has been split into seven lots. These range in size from a traditional barn with development potential and six acres to a 436-acre block of land.

The overall guide price for Freelands Farm is in excess of £12m, which puts the land in at just over £8,000/acre.

As with the recently launched Puckham and Whalley Farms, close to Cheltenham, there is planning permission for a large new house.

“Freelands has been farmed in-hand in a first-class manner and the crops look exceptionally good considering the difficult spring we have had,” said James Prewitt of selling agent Knight Frank. (Knight Frank 0844 225 9495)

Debden Top Farm near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, also has two good houses, along with about 365 acres of Grade 2 land.

There is a Victorian five-bedroom farmhouse, a 1990s Potton four-bedroom house and a good range of multi-purpose modern farm buildings with about 750t of grain storage. This unit is also in combinable crops and has been farmed in-hand. Split into four lots, the overall guide price is £4.5m. (Cheffins 01223 213 777)

Bare land is on offer in Nottinghamshire, where a 209-acre block of Grade 3 arable land at Greenhedge Farm, Aslockton, is on the market. This lies north-east of Grantham and is for sale through Strutt & Parker, with single farm payment entitlements included. This land is in the Entry Level Stewardship scheme and has a guide price of £8,200/acre. (Strutt & Parker 01858 433 123)

Further south in Bedfordshire, Savills has 117 acres of Grade 3 arable, parkland and grassland for sale at Home Farm, Ickwell, with a guide price of £780,000. (Savills 01223 347 000)

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