Strong interest from non farming investors continues to push up farmland prices, with over £11,000 per acre achieved at a recent auction in Nottinghamshire.
The auction at Clumber Park on 8th December saw a total of 767 acres of mixed use arable land sell for £5.067 million. Spread over 13 lots, a single investor outbid local farmers and bidders to purchase 10 lots.
The top price of £11,059 per acre was achieved for deep grade 2 limestone land at Barlborough on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border where 46.47 acres sold for £525,000.
Unusually the auction also included a 139.02 acre farm at Barlborough let on an Agricultural Holdings Act tenancy. Part of the farm having been previously opencast coal mine it was classified as grade 4 but included a bungalow and some farm buildings. The farm sold for £490,000 or £3,525 per acre representing a gross yield of 2.41%. The purchaser was an investor who beat off other investors, a number of whom had shown interest in the farm with pre auction indications of values between £420,000 and £450,000.
Lindrick Farm, near Worksop, comprises 192.53 acres of grade 2 limestone land, selling for £1.468m. The farm is subject to a Farm Business Tenancy expiring in 2012 and with a cottage let on an AST, equating to £7,625 per acre. A single arable sand land field at Styrrup near Doncaster which was grade 2 and without entitlements made £117,000 for the 20.46 acres, an average of £5,718 per acre.
Other lots of similar land made around £9,000 per acre and some grade 3 former opencast coalmine land made between £3,864 and £4,778 per acre over three lots.
Tim Shuldham of Fisher German commented that "There is a limited supply of grade 2 limestone land in the area and it rarely comes on the market. We had anticipated strong interest from local farmers and until the marketing had commenced had not expected investor interest to be as high.
Investors are beginning to look at land more favourably as they can gain from both capital gains tax rollover relief and inheritance tax relief".
