Donegal records biggest drop in farm land prices of any county in Ireland

Agricultural land sold in Donegal last year saw recorded prices dropping by more than 20% - the biggest decline of any county in Ireland.

The average price per acre was €6,089, although it ranged from €921 per acre to €21,538 per acre in the sale of some 27 farms. 

Sheep farmers accounted for 50% of the sales.

The total acreage offered for sale was 2,283.

The figures are contained in the Agricultural Land Price Report for 2019, published this week by the Irish Farmers’ Journal.

The highest price per acre was in Dublin where it averaged €18,829, although this was 14% down on the 2018 figure.

Mayo had the lowest average price per acre of land sold at just €4,809 per acre. The only other counties with a lower than average price per acre than Donegal were Leitrim (€5,479), Roscommon (€6,015) and Cavan (€6,066).

Land prices have held steady in each of the last two years, decreasing just marginally according to the 72-page county by county land price report which is contained inside this week’s edition of the IFJ.

The average price of agricultural land in Ireland in 2019 was €8,971/acre, representing a 1.1% fall on the 2018 figure of €9,072/acre. For added context, the 2019 average is just 1.3% less than the 2017 average land price of €9,088/acre.

There was 61,206 acres of land offered to the market in 2019, some 13% back on 2018. There were 1,331 parcels of land offered on the market, 20% less than the previous year. Reasons for the reduced supply include:

-        10,000 landowners have availed of the long term leasing tax incentives in 2017.

-        Brexit has been looming over the market since the referendum in June 2016. In 2019 the UK's exit date from the EU was scheduled to happen twice, but didn’t. This affected sentiment from sellers, who held out on putting their land on the market in the hope of getting a higher price at a later date.

Methodology

AVERAGE OF AVERAGES: The primary county and national averages used in the report are stated as being the average of averages. This is the sum of the average price per acre for each farm that sold divided by the number of farms that sold. The national average of averages for 2019 was €8,971/ac - down 1.1% on 2018.

The Irish Farmers Journal’s Agricultural Land Price Report is based on 1,331 farms/land parcels put on the market by private treaty, public auction and tender throughout the country in 2019.

These farms amount to 61,206 acres offered for sale and comprised a mix of tillage land, grazing ground, hill land and commonage. The 783 completed transactions represent a 10% decrease from the number of transactions recorded in 2018 (870).