Toft and silt veg unit could hit new arable record high
Toft and silt veg unit could hit new arable record high
HOT on the heels of local agent Eleys record breaking land sale last December, FPDSavills is auctioning another 102 acres of Lincs double-cropping vegetable land, on Feb 26.
Toft Farm near Wrangle, Boston, is the neighbouring property to Toft House Farm, which Eleys Bruce Mather put under the hammer for £1.77m. This valued the farms 143 acres of grade 1 toft and silt land at £11,866/acre, an all-time high for UK arable land.
Selling agent, Andrew Pearce, hopes to achieve a similar price for his client, Lincolnshire County Council. He is offering the farm in two lots; one consists of 23 acres of land, while the other features 79 acres and a small range of buildings. The agent hopes this strategy will encourage bidding from local producers who may not want to take on the whole unit.
Unchanged
Mr Mather does not think the market has changed since the last sale and sees no reason why the London firm should not set a new record. "The parish of Wrangle has a history of achieving excellent prices. Every time I have sold land there I have got a better price than before," he says. Many of the under-bidders from the previous sale could be interested in having another go, he adds.
Eleys has another, more substantial block of similar land available for sale privately. The soils are believed to be even more predominated by the toft and marsh silts so highly valued by vegetable producers.