Real Estate: It's Not Just London, Big Money Lining Up to Buy British Farmland

From Agrimoney:

'Deep-pocketed' UK land investors hit 3-year high

The number of large investors queuing to buy UK farmland has hit its highest in three years, but demand is focused on high-quality arable operations, whose premium over low-quality grassland continues to increase.

Savills, the land consultancy, said that the number of investors with £5m-10m to spend on farmland had risen to its highest quarterly total in three years, some 13% above the average.

"There has been an increase in the number of applicants who have deeper pockets for buying farmland", said the group, which has investors with some £6bn to spend on farmland on its books.

"A large proportion of these funds will still be available into next year," given the shortage of farmland for sale, with the supply of 128,000 hectares in the first nine months "historically low", the group said.

What is in demand

However, buyers were focused on high quality arable farms, particularly in the east of England – a factor reflected in price growth which has hit 8.5% in the January-to-September period, taking average values nearly to £8,300 an acre....MORE