Land market suffers slowdown

LAND MARKET activity in the first eight months of 2004 was down 22% across Great Britain, but the average value for all types of farmland rose by almost 10% during the first half of the year.

FPDSavills‘ latest research bulletin says the total acreage publicly marketed was 86,500 acres compared with 110,500 acres a year earlier.

The overall supply of land to the market is now only 40% of what it was during the three years before foot-and-mouth struck in 2001.

Across the country, farmland values have risen by a 13% over the year to June, providing the most significant annual lift since the first half of 1996.

In England, the downturn in supply, by 9% to 65,800 acres, was not as bad as in Scotland or Wales.

But this compares with an average of almost 140,000 acres publicly marketed during the run up to foot-and-mouth.

Scotland marketed less than 17,000 acres – down 50% on the 34,000 acres marketed a year earlier and a negligible volume compared with the average 68,000 acres marketed annually at the turn of the century.

In Wales, the tiny volume of land offered helped to boost average value by 15% during Jan-June 2004.