The price of Irish farmland seems to have stabilised, and if anything is showing a very marginal increase in some parts of the country, according to Knight Frank Ireland.
A survey by the independent global property consultants found that in the midland region of the country, which includes counties Westmeath, Offaly, Meath, Longford, and Laois, farmland prices averaged €8,911 per acre over the first six months of this year.
The national survey on agricultural land price performance for the first six months of 2010 shows that the price for agricultural land across the entire country is now averaging €10,131 per acre.
Prices have increased nationally by about €450 per acre on average this year. The national average price paid for farmland was €9,678 per acre for the whole of 2009. This represents a small increase in the first half of 2010, leading to the belief that prices have now levelled off and most likely stabilised.
Predictably, in this latest mid-term survey, the Dublin, Kildare, and Wicklow region had the highest average price at just over €16,139 per acre. This is significantly up from the 2009 findings, which showed an overall value of €10,920 per acre.
The second highest average price paid for agricultural land was not surprisingly in the south-east region of the country, which includes counties Kilkenny, Wexford, and Carlow, where the value of an acre this year averaged €13,334.
