Agent’s eye: Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire

While Hertfordshire is predominantly an arable county with bigger commercial units and larger field sizes, Buckinghamshire is more livestock orientated, particularly in the Vale of Aylesbury and North Buckinghamshire, which is dominated by smaller pasture farms of up to 200 acres.
The land market in the commuter-belt areas of the Chilterns and the Three Valleys is now controlled by non-farmers with only a relatively small number of commercial growers operating in these areas, mainly farming land for others who have purchased the land for amenity and investment purposes.
The first six months of 2009 has seen a much more limited supply of land and farms coming to the market with no real headline properties, with the exception of 700 acres of bare land at the Haresford Estate, Berkhamsted. It is unlikely that this shortage will ease in the rest of the year and it should ensure that land prices hold up for the foreseeable future. In Buckinghamshire there are a number of smaller commercial units currently on the market including 176 acres at Quainton and 142 acres at Waddesdon. Commercial land prices are now achieving between £4500 and £5500/acre with specific location being as important as the size and quality of any house and buildings – the latter often finding a ready market for letting as commercial premises. 
While many of the non-farmer residential buyers have now fallen away, other speculators and investors have stepped in. They are keen to acquire commercial farmland in the area because of its closeness to London, continued interest in the proposed movements of Green Belt boundaries, the tax reliefs available and the perception that land is a more stable long-term investment.
Such buyers are still prepared to pay premium figures for land with speculative potential. A block of land at Tring extending to 130 acres in the Green Belt has been sold at a figure just under twice what it would have achieved if it had been in the open countryside. In Sandridge, near St Albans, several hundred acres were sold last year to the Woodland Trust in a well-publicised transaction, and there are countless more examples of small blocks of land achieving significant premiums when sold to amenity buyers.
Amenity land prices have been more affected by problems in the economy with paddock land reducing from an average of £10,000/acre to nearer £7500/acre although there are still many examples of sWhile Hertfordshire is predominantly an arable county with bigger commercial units and larger field sizes, Buckinghamshire is more livestock orientated, particularly in the Vale of Aylesbury and North Buckinghamshire, which is dominated by smaller pasture farms of up to 200 acres.
The land market in the commuter-belt areas of the Chilterns and the Three Valleys is now controlled by non-farmers with only a relatively small number of commercial growers operating in these areas, mainly farming land for others who have purchased the land for amenity and investment purposes.
The first six months of 2009 has seen a much more limited supply of land and farms coming to the market with no real headline properties, with the exception of 700 acres of bare land at the Haresford Estate, Berkhamsted. It is unlikely that this shortage will ease in the rest of the year and it should ensure that land prices hold up for the foreseeable future. In Buckinghamshire there are a number of smaller commercial units currently on the market including 176 acres at Quainton and 142 acres at Waddesdon. Commercial land prices are now achieving between £4500 and £5500/acre with specific location being as important as the size and quality of any house and buildings – the latter often finding a ready market for letting as commercial premises. 
While many of the non-farmer residential buyers have now fallen away, other speculators and investors have stepped in. They are keen to acquire commercial farmland in the area because of its closeness to London, continued interest in the proposed movements of Green Belt boundaries, the tax reliefs available and the perception that land is a more stable long-term investment.
Such buyers are still prepared to pay premium figures for land with speculative potential. A block of land at Tring extending to 130 acres in the Green Belt has been sold at a figure just under twice what it would have achieved if it had been in the open countryside. In Sandridge, near St Albans, several hundred acres were sold last year to the Woodland Trust in a well-publicised transaction, and there are countless more examples of small blocks of land achieving significant premiums when sold to amenity buyers.
Amenity land prices have been more affected by problems in the economy with paddock land reducing from an average of £10,000/acre to nearer £7500/acre although there are still many examples of small, strategically placed blocks achieving £20,000/acre or more.
Given the shortage of supply and continued demand I predict that these amenity prices will quickly recover and that all land in the Home Counties both from a commercial and investment perspective will not only hold its value but will continue to rise.

• Edward Briggs is based at Bidwells’ Kings Langley Office and can be contacted on 01923 272 813 or edward.briggs@bidwells.co.uk