Autumn launches offer interesting opportunities

Among this week’s featured launches are some seldom available property types. These include a 171-acre ring-fenced block of bare land in Norfolk in mixed uses.

The sale at Wilby offers 85 acres of arable land currently farmed in-hand in a rotation of winter and spring cereals, winter oilseed rape, sugar beet, potatoes and peas.

Grassland, water meadows let for sheep grazing and woodland make up the rest of the acreage. The land has well-drained calcareous fine silty and clayey soils over chalk, suited to cereals, grassland and permanent pasture.

A Countryside Stewardship (CS) Mid Tier agreement is in place and two Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements.

See also: Durham let farm, Oxfordshire and North Yorks holdings launched

The land may offer opportunities for environmental enhancement, biodiversity net gain and natural capital uses, says Peter Mason of selling agent Ceres Property.

“The property is inclusive of the site of a former farmhouse and an orchard which may have potential for future residential development subject to planning consent being obtained,” he adds.

Ceres Property is seeking offers in the region of £1.25m and is also lotting the sale two ways.

Grade 2 in Essex

The same agent is also launching a ring-fenced farm near Haverhill, Essex, this week. Sturmer has 85 acres of productive Grade 2 arable land across two fields.

The land is well drained, says Peter, with calcareous clay soils to support arable cropping, particularly winter cereals. Recent cropping includes winter cereals, spring cereals, pulses and oilseed rape.

The farm is very rural and offers wonderful views, says Peter. It has a three-bedroom farmhouse with an adjacent traditional steel portal framed farm building with potential for conversion or redevelopment. This sale is guided at £1.25m.

Moigns Down Farm © Savills

Privacy in Dorset

A rare and unusual opportunity to buy about 203 acres of pasture and environmentally significant land comes with the imminent launch of Moigns Down Farm, near Watercombe, on Dorset’s Jurassic coast.

The farm is just inland from Ringstead Bay and is ring-fenced. It has planning permission for the conversion and extension of its 16th and 17th century stone threshing barn into a four-bedroom dwelling.

The barn is part of a historic farmstead whose medieval farmhouse no longer survives. There is a traditional walled farmyard and the ruins of a pair of former workers’ cottages.

The land is in a Higher Level Stewardship agreement until 2028 and includes strips of woodland. Water is supplied by both mains and a borehole, and fibre broadband is due to be installed  this autumn.

The holding is in the Dorset National Landscape (formerly designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty) and is very close to the Jurassic Coast Unesco World Heritage Site and the South Dorset Coast site of special scientific interest. It is also in the Poole Harbour and South Wessex nitrate vulnerable zones.

Savills has put a £2.4m guide price on Moigns Down Farm, which is on the market as a result of retirement.

Drumbuie Farm © Savills

Ayrshire bare land

The same firm has also launched a 103-acre block of land at Drumbuie Farm in Maybole, South Ayrshire. The land is in five fields, in a ring-fence and currently rented on a seasonal grazing licence.

It is predominantly Class 4(2) which is land capable of producing a narrow range of crops, primarily grassland with short arable breaks of forage crops according to the James Hutton Institute land classification maps.

It ranges in aspect from 127m to 161m above sea level, is all sown to grass, and has access to Barnshean Loch.

Sian Houston of Savills says the block could be a useful addition to an existing farm business or for lifestyle and equestrian interests.

Offers over £395,000 are being sought, and the land is also offered as two lots.