Land market falls as uncertainty delivers buyer caution

The right farm or land in the right place still commands a good price, but realism is needed on guide prices, say agents.

Several farms have been remarketed this year, having failed to attract a buyer in 2024.

The market is clouded by economic and policy volatility, alongside the impact of the proposed inheritance tax relief cuts, inflation and the likelihood of bank base rates falling only slightly through 2026.

See also: IHT planning must include an all round review of assets

Agents report prices and values on different bases. Figures from Strutt & Parker are for parcels of more than 100 acres in England, and put average arable land prices at £10,400/acre in the first nine months of this year, down 8% on average prices across the whole of 2024.

This is the result of more arable land selling in the £8,000 to £10,000/acre range and less making more than £12,000/acre, says the firm.

Head of estates and farm agency Sam Holt points out that values are still high by historic standards but says the market is one of contrasts, with some farms attracting strong buyer competition, while others are finding it hard to find a buyer – because of a wide range of variables.

Wide value variation

“Even within the same county, we are seeing land values ranging from £7,000 to £17,000/acre for comparable quality arable land,” Sam says. At £8,500/acre, pasture land between January and the end of September was down 7% on 2024 prices, says Strutt & Parker.

Grade 1 land is very much in demand, for potatoes and vegetables in businesses where combinable crops have become a break crop, says Sam. “There is also still a good appetite for land in the Midlands and southern England.”

Land agent BTF Partnership operates mainly in southeast England and echoes the variation in price within a county.

Director Alex Cornwallis contrasts relatively poor demand from farmers for a large acreage in west Kent with that in the east of the county, where the firm is expecting to complete a sale in the next couple of weeks on 257 acres at Newlands Farm, Throwley, near Faversham for significantly in excess of the £2.5m guide price.

At Carter Jonas, head of rural agency Andrew Chandler says: “While commercial farming buyers are still present, they have become increasingly wary of land’s value proposition and are becoming more selective.”

There is increased buyer hesitancy and a limited buyer pool in some parts of the market, he says. “Yet some segments of the farmland market remain resilient. Well-positioned, high-quality assets continue to command strong values, while secondary and tertiary land is seeing downward adjustments.

“Some areas are reporting that those farmers who previously had expansionist plans have reached their financial capacity, leading to a limited local buyer pool.”

This is not because banks are curtailing their support in lending for land purchase, he says, but more a case of farmers standing back and looking at their operations and land holdings, often with a view to rationalising.

This is especially true where there is land away from the main holding, which in some cases is being sold to fund investment in diversification and other commercial enterprises.

Dairy farmers are still quite land-hungry, says Andrew, and are in the market.

Carter Jonas launched 320 acres of bare arable land in West Sussex last week and put the 1,728-acre Finedon Estate in Northamptonshire on the market today (17 October), the latter jointly with Ceres Property.

Barring any major disruption from the forthcoming Budget, the firm expects values to hold broadly stable into the new year until the next wave of launches in the spring.

Delayed marketing

More certainty is needed, says Sam Holt, with several vendors who were preparing to sell this autumn delaying until early 2026, preferring to first find out what the Autumn Budget brings.

The data points to demand having eased from its 2021-22 peak, says Strutt & Parker, with a greater proportion of farms launched in 2024 still unsold or having been withdrawn compared with the previous two years.

“With farms taking longer to sell, lotting to highlight the value of the constituent parts has become an increasingly important tool to attract new buyers and generate competition,” says Sam.

While sales may be taking longer, more than 50% of the farms that do sell are doing so at or above their guide prices, says Sam, who puts the typical timescale from launch to completion at four to five months, although it can stretch to more than eight months.

Where the prospect is good and the right potential buyers are in the market, it’s not unusual to have an offer made and accepted within a week of launch, he says.

Alex Lawson, head of farm agency with Savills, says: “It’s been a strange year. At times it felt like there was nothing going on and then once it stopped raining there were a couple of concentrated months. The market has performed pretty well, almost against the odds.”

Knight Frank’s Farmland Index, tracking the value of bare land in England and Wales, puts the average price at £8,719/acre over the third quarter of 2025, equating to an annual fall of 6.8%.

Looking ahead

Agents are assessing many prospective spring launches. While rollover buyers are still in the market in certain pockets, international interest in UK farmland has waned, says Andrew Chandler.

Early December could be a very busy period, says Alex Lawson.

“We’ll know a lot more after the end of November [after the Budget]. A number of estates are keeping their powder dry and not making a decision to go to market yet. A lot of our buyers and sellers are discretionary; they have to feel it’s the right time. It’s not an easy decision.”

Private market

Off-market sales continue, often initially as a way of testing the appetite for and value of a farm or land. For many vendors, the privacy this route offers is important.

There can be an element of speculative pricing in this market, which offers the opportunity to withdraw and do something different, Andrew points out.

Strutt & Parker currently has two substantial arable offerings on the private market in ­England.