A slow market during the first half of 1990 produced farm auction results an average 14% lower, at £2,813 per acre, than the previous six-month period.
The Savills/Oxford Institute land price series, published twice a year in Farmland Market(*), shows a decline in the prices paid at auction for vacant possession farms over 25 acres for the first time since the mid-1980s.
Several factors contribute to this decline: high interest rates, problems in the residential market, the temporary withdrawal of funds generated by rollover relief and food scares affecting livestock farms are among them. All these particularly affect the smaller holdings most likely to be taken to auction.
However, editorial comment from 12 auctioneers and chartered surveyors around the country indicates that, although there are fewer buyers, the market is not entirely gloomy.
Good-quality, well-equipped farms continue to sell well, and lively demand for bare land has pushed its average value at auction to £2,505 per acre.
Farmland Market also charts statistics relating to land prices, plus a county-by-county analysis of individual farm sales.
In the August issue, John Nix of Wye College examines price trends since the second world war and Paul Hutton, partner of Smiths Gore, highlights the effects on landownership of the poll tax and uniform business rate.
New initiatives in the landlord/tenant dabate are criticised by farmer Henry Fell, while Booker Farming managing director Malcolm McAllister shows how professional farm management companies can also inject equity into the business.
(*) Published by Farmers Weekly in association with the RICS, Farmland Market is available on subscription (£40 a year) from the Subscriptions Manager (Farmland Market), Reed Business Publishing Group, Oakfield House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH16 3QH. Individual copies can be obtained by telephone 081-661 to 4920.
