The value of farmland in England remains close to record levels, despite an increase in the volume of land being marketed and ongoing speculation about whether there will be changes to the tax regime in the Autumn Budget, new figures show.

The Strutt & Parker Farmland Database, which records the sale of all farms, estates and blocks of publicly marketed land in England over 100 acres in size, shows the average price of arable land sold so far during 2024 is £11,000/acre, only slightly lower than the £11,200/acre recorded across 2023.

Over half of pasture land also now sells for £8,000/acre or more with the average in Q3 2024 being £9,300/acre.

(Image: Savills)

“Prime farms in locations where there tend to be wealthy buyers continue to sell well and often over the guide price,” says Sam Holt, head of estates and farm agency for Strutt & Parker.

“Smaller blocks of bare land can also command very high prices, often being bought by farmers with rollover money who are highly motivated when they see a neighbour has land for sale.

(Image: Contributor)

“However, overall, the feeling among agents is that demand has eased since the frenzy of the post-Covid period of 2021/22. This means there is a second tier of farms, which can be extremely good quality but in less popular areas, which are taking longer to sell.”

The data shows 86,200 acres launched publicly during the first nine months of the year which is the second highest amount in ten years. Supply is above average in most regions, but is particularly high in the south west of England and the East Midlands.

The number of properties for sale is the highest since 2015 and there have been more larger farms and estates available. To date, there have been 24 farms of over 500 acres launched and 12 over 1,000 acres, which is higher than typically seen. An increasing proportion of vendors are telling us that they are selling to crystallise an uplift in value and retire.

Mr Holt says there continues to be lots of speculation about whether there will be changes to Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax or stamp duty in the Autumn Budget, but at the time of writing nothing is certain.

“However, there has been a concerted effort across almost all sales agreed so far this year, to get transactions exchanged under the current tax regime," he said. "The general market sentiment is that any adjustments in taxation will potentially be onerous to both buyer and seller.

“The current tax regime has been one of the many attractions of buying UK farmland, and so we look forward to having more clarity about the government’s plans at the end of the month.”