The price of farmland is forecast to increase by 6% this year.

The Society of Chartered Surveyors and Teagasc have teamed up to review the market in what has been a tough year for farmers so far.

They found the average value of non-residential agricultural land in 2023 was €9,297 per acre with prices set to reach almost €10,000 by the end of 2024.

Edward McAuley from the SCSI believes ECB rate rises have had an impact. 

“Dairy farmers are the predominant farm type that purchase land - they’re most active in the purchase of farmland,” he said. 

“Due to, I suppose, lower margins in dairy farming and higher interest rates in 2023 have somewhat impacted their appetite to purchase land.” 

Farmer in Ireland walking behind a herd of cows on a narrow country road on Valentia Island in County Kerry, Ireland.

Mr McAuley also believes the recent bout of bad weather will cause prices to drop in the near future. 

“There’s a lot of farmland still waterlogged and the time has really passed in some instances for farmers to get crops into the ground,” he said. 

“So, in the context of that and the future market for wheat and barley and so on, the prices are expected to be down significantly on last year.”

The average price for holdings of less than 50 acres in Waterford costs €20,000 per acre, while similar land in Leitrim is priced at almost €8,000 per acre.

Main image: A farmer and her silage bales. Picture by: Alamy.com