Farmland in your area 2024: South-east England

The farmland market across the south-east of England remained strong in 2023, with supply up 14% on 2022 levels and further ahead of other recent years.

Pricing has been key – agents say that where farms have been sensibly priced, bidding has been competitive and strong values achieved.

In a trend that is being seen across the majority of UK regions, farmers are just one in a range of prospective buyers in the South East, with competition from multiple other sources including those seeking to tap into the environmental and carbon markets.

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Lack of supply maintains healthy prices

Will Matthews, head of farms and farm and estate sales, Knight Frank

Last year was more of the same for the land market in the south-east of England, with a continued lack of supply maintaining pricing at healthy levels.

Ultimately, the owners that came to the market and priced their farms sensibly were regularly trading under competition and selling successfully with some extraordinary results.

Despite the uncertain economic and political backdrop, there were very few examples of forced selling; the reasons for sale were diverse with no specific trends.

The purchaser profile remained diverse with the same competition between expanding farmers, those that were tax driven, buyers with rollover funds and amenity buyers.

The market also saw ever-increasing demand from those looking for some form of environmental enhancement or with carbon in mind.

As we start 2024, the continued lack of supply is likely to see land prices maintained and also the demand for land, as, at its core, land is still regarded as a safe haven for investment.

Residential farms are more challenging

Will Banham, director, Strutt & Parker

While a good number of farms have initially been offered for sale on an off-market basis, the majority of those that have sold have been marketed publicly.

There are farming buyers looking to roll over development gains. However, there remains a larger contingent of non-farming buyers driven by investment, ecological and rewilding interests, looking to secure the land for uses other than conventional agriculture.

As a consequence, commercial blocks of bare land and buildings have continued to sell well, but residential farms and those with multiple residential properties have been more challenging.  

Land for vineyard establishment is also in demand, with sites attracting a significant premium over agricultural value, though most of these transactions occur off-market.

Overall, our advice is that the market is more price-sensitive than it was a year ago, and so it is important that land is realistically priced to secure a good sale.

Sold in 2023

Church Farm at Herstmonceux, East Sussex, has 230 acres of arable land, grazing marsh and a range of buildings.

Marketed by Strutt & Parker at a guide price of £1.89m, the farm attracted interest from local farmers and investment buyers, eventually going under offer to an investor.

Church Farm © Strutt & Parker

For sale

Drews Farm, at Rowland’s Castle, West Sussex, is a 171-acre mixed block of undulating pasture, arable land and woodland. It is being marketed by Knight Frank as a whole or in two blocks.

Lot 1 is almost 84 acres and Lot 2 almost 88 acres. The guide price as a whole is £1.7m.

© Knight Frank

On the market

The Brooks at Henfield, West Sussex, is a strategically important 114-acre block of grazing and flood meadow.

It is gaining good interest from rewilding and ecological buyers, as well as those looking at opportunities for water neutrality and biodiversity net gain investments.

Strutt & Parker is seeking offers in excess of £800,000.

The Brooks © Knight Frank