Land ValuesWith Irish farmland values now the highest in Europe, approaching €60,000 per hectare (€24,280 per acre), Irish eyes are turning to the neighbouring island for farms. According to David Ashmore, Associate Director at Savills HOK Country, 22 per cent of queries about Scottish farms come from Ireland and 6 per cent of queries on English land come from here.
A recent survey carried out by his company on land values found that farmland prices here are 10 times the value of land in Scotland and six times more than that of similar land in England. "Only a tiny per percentage of Irish land is sold each year, about 8,000 hectares (19,768 acres) out of a total of more than four million hectares (9.8m acres) and this means that on average each field changes hands only once every 550 years," he said.
"Lifestyle farmers and hobby farmers are mainly to blame for pushing up the value of land. The former, predominantly "high net worth" individuals accounted for 60 per cent of farm purchases last year. As Irish wealth has increased alongside global wealth, many prominent business people can easily afford to splash out €3 million to €5 million on a farm, about half what they spend on their "des-res" in Dublin 4," he says. " The link between farm incomes and land values is now well and truly broken. It is no longer possible to buy an Irish farm on a commercial basis, by paying €25,000-€35,000 per acre (€61,776-€86,486 per hectare), and then being able to make a living from it," he said.
He said farmers who had sold land adjacent to provincial towns or transport routes have received large cash sums for selling part of the farm. However, in order for them to remain as farmers and keep stocking levels, they are being forced to buy additional land. Being cash rich following the sale of un-zoned land for redevelopment purposes, they can afford to pay the higher prices for agricultural land, thus perpetuating the cycle leading to further price rises.
"As it is impossible to get returns from land to cover such high costs, serious farmers who want to farm on a commercial basis are looking at farms abroad such as the 1,900-acre Dumfries estate, which has an asking price of £6.5 million (€9.5m) being sold by our Edinburgh office," he said. "Inquiries of interest to date are unprecedented from this side of the water, both from farmers interested in relocation and an investment, and from businessmen.
