Land sales review – analysis: Supply shortage and Nitrates Directive drive average price paid above €15,000/ac
Our survey of every reported public auction shines light on land market‘The rarity of stand-alone, commercially viable farms ensured premium prices’
Knocktoran Stud on 251ac at Kilmallock, Co Limerick was the largest farm sold at auction in the country in 2023 and made €4.3m under the hammer
The average cost of an acre of land sold at auction in 2023 reached €15,223, with some record prices paid, according to a survey undertaken by the Farming Independent(see explanatory note below).
According to auctioneers a continued tightening in the supply of land coming to the rental and sales markets is driving prices upwards, along with pressure on dairy farmers to adjust their herds or their land holdings to accommodate the terms of the Nitrates Directive.
