2025 land market: Wide range of interest and buyers

The UK’s land market performance has been mixed and region-specific in a year of generally higher supply and strong demand for quality, equipped farms and bare land.

Demand by active farmers is consistent with previous years, with strong competition for best-in-class properties in 2025.

Sales of average and poorer quality land have, however, been slower and a good number of farms that did not sell in 2024 were relaunched this year.

See also: Farmland 2025: Competitive pricing needed in slow market

Notably absent in the past 12 months was the investor buyer – higher interest rates are a factor in that withdrawal, increasing the earning potential of cash and dampening the appetite for land.

Environmental sale

The Kent Wildlife Trust paid £1.65m for 205-acre Hoathly Farm, near Lamberhurst, in September, announcing an ambition to transform it from “a hostile environment for wildlife to a utopia”.

To fund the purchase of this mainly arable farm on Grade 3 land, the Trust raised £500,000 through a public appeal which unlocked match funding from donors.

The price paid was well over the £1.395m guide in a sale managed by the BTF Partnership.

Plans for the farm ‑ which has more than 27 acres of woodland and ponds – include establishing wood pasture, species-rich meadow and restoring ancient hedgerows.

Tree planting plans

The influence of environmental buyers was evident in another autumn sale in Kent.

Forestry England bought New Luckhurst Farm, near Smarden, which has 163 acres of productive arable land, for tree planting.

BTF Partnership acted as the agent for this sale and secured £1.475m for the farm, which was just above the guide price.

Lincolnshire farm of scale

At 2,677 acres, Howlett House Farm, at Hogsthorpe, Skegness, has scale, reflected in its guide price of £21m.

Its Grade 3 soils are well suited for wheat, barley, oilseed rape, vining peas, beans and energy crops. It also has significant grain storage and two farmhouses.

The farm generated strong competition among interested buyers from across the UK and overseas when it was launched by Savills.

It was a farmer buyer from outside the county who clinched the deal in August, paying in excess of the guide price.

Diversified in Hampshire 

With two let cottages and three self-catering holiday properties, the non-farming income potential of Itchen Down Farm at Itchen Abbas, Winchester, added to its appeal.

It had plenty to tempt active farmers, with 560 acres of mostly arable land and a good range of grain stores and buildings.

Launched by BCM Wilson Hill, it was the first time in more than a century that the farm had come to the market.

The sale was rapid – it launched in June to good levels of local interest, was under offer in July and completed in September, selling to a farmer at very close to the guide price of £9.75m.

Sale with sitting tenant

Achieving a sale is more complex when a farm is let. Cooper & Tanner accomplished this with its largest transaction of the year, selling a fully equipped dairy and arable farm to a local businessman.

Home Farm at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, was offered for sale on behalf of the Downside Abbey Trustees with seven years of a farm business tenancy left to run.

With 310 acres, a farmhouse and farm buildings, it was marketed as a “significant and exciting investment opportunity”.

A local businessman seized that opportunity, buying it for less than the £3.8m guide in a sale process that went to best offers and with interest from a range of buyers, including a farmer.

Farm with a difference

A Dorset arable and livestock farm producing its own feed was Symonds & Sampson’s standout sale of 2025.

Peggs Farm, a 211-acre holding near Blandford Forum, had been farmed by the Hooper Family since 1908 until they put it on the market in June.

It has Grade 1 and 2 land, a working watermill powered by a chalk stream, traditional and modern farm buildings covering 4,340sq m, and three dwellings.

It launched at £4.795m and sold in November to a local investor buyer for more than the guide.

Scottish sale above guide

Strong demand saw a 245-acre arable unit in Angus sell for significantly more than the asking price of £2.4m. Farmerton Farm, near Forfar, was Bell Ingram’s largest farm sale of the year.

Its Grade 3.1 land, range of traditional and modern farm buildings and four-bedroom farmhouse appealed to a number of potential buyers during a concentrated five-week marketing period.

John Kennedy, farm sales agent at Bell Ingram, who handled the sale, said Farmerton drew strong and competitive interest from the start, thanks to its “quality arable land, well-balanced acreage and an accessible location”.

Heart of Exmoor

The marketing of Lanacre Farm near Withypool, Somerset, promised privacy and diverse income opportunities, including several additional dwellings and a function room alongside its five bedroom farmhouse.

Set in a stunning position in the heart of Exmoor, selling agent Knight Frank described its views as exceptional. Lanacre has 198 acres of ring-fenced, in-bye land, with no public rights of way.

It sold for more than the £3.5m guide price and included 2,500m of private double bank fishing on the River Barle and 1,877 acres of moorland.