This is the age-old question of how much does one acre of land cost.? The answer is not quite as simple as it may seem.
There are so many variables that come into play with land prices that it can literally boggle your mind. I will try to break it down the best I can.
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Now let’s get on with the subject at hand and that’s whats it cost for an acre of Land.
When it comes to pricing land by the acre if you are looking at purchasing a lonely one or two acres.
Then this will be extremely more expensive and difficult than purchasing one hundred acres. There are many more, larger parcels of land available than small.
Why Is The Cost Of One Acre So Much More Per Acre Than The Cost Of One Hundred
It’s simple if you purchase more land you get discount, as with most things in life.
The answer to this is simply more people have £25,000 – £30,000 to pay for one or two acres. Than have £600,000 for one hundred acres.
Which if you break it down per acre it is only £6,000 for one acre. I hope you are following me here.?
One acre of farmland in the UK can cost in 2019 – 2020 between £12,000 – £15,000 depending on where it is located.
But it can be very expensive if it is located right next to your home say in the field next door.
Then you could pay up to £50,000 for just that one acre. The reason behind this is because of the value it would add to your home etc.
What Affects Land Prices
There are more variables included in pricing land. Things like how close are the utilities to the land itself. Maybe the land already has water or electricity.
If so they will make the land more expensive. Does the land come with a barn or a couple of stables?
Has the land got planning permission attached? So on and so forth?
Now let me try and give you some idea of where to start with valuing one or two acres of say “Farming Land”. This is a farming blog after all, so farmland is what we will try and put a price on.
What Do You Want To Do With The Land
There are many other factors that come with purchasing farmland especially in the “UK” and a couple of big ones are “Covenants & ClawBacks”.
Let’s start with Covenants, these are in place and can restrict you from doing what you want with the farmland. Breaking these can cost you a pretty penny, so make sure to get your solicitor to read the small print.
Let’s say you want to start a horse livery, but 10 years ago another farm down the road owned the land, then they sold it.
They could have put a covenant in place to stop the land being used as “Horse Livery” because they have one.
This would make a “Horse Livery” just up the road a competing business and they will not want that. But you could still keep horses on the land, but not for business purposes.
Maybe the land is next to a housing estate and you want to put a small pig farm on there. There might be a covenant in place to stop this or even keeping chickens. This is why it is important to make sure you do all the relevant covenant checks.
If you don’t, your farming plans may be scuppered before you even get started.
What about ClawBacks, well clawbacks are put in place in favor of the seller. Most clawbacks in the UK are 50% of any increase in the value of the land for a period of 25 years or more.
This is to make sure you only use the land for farming purposes. If you do eventually get planning for a home or a development outside of farming.
Then you will have to cough up 50% of the increased land value within one year.
Most sellers do not even know about “ClawBacks” until they speak to the pesky “Land Agents” who will be selling on their behalf.
They will remind the seller of the potential of a “Clawback” and you can be sure the seller will want to add one to the sale.
But This Is Not All That Can Effect The Price Of Land
As I mentioned above the price of farmland can be affected by location. Is it in the countryside or edge of town region?
Land on the edge of towns will be more expensive and harder to find than out in the sticks. Utilities are also harder to find and more expensive to be installed. That’s if you can even get them installed in an area that is well away from a town.
You will also pay more for the edge of the towns. Top prices for one acre are around the £15,000 mark. It will also probably come with the dreaded “Covenants & Clawbacks” in there. Otherwise, they will want more than £15,000.
If you want it free from clawbacks, even though planning for a home may still be impossible to get.
Please don’t believe what the national average land prices say. These are nationwide & include the whole countrywide price of land sales.
These are rearly what you will see land selling for.
They do not represent the pieces of land sold in one-acre parcels etc.
They do not include the parcels of land sold privately. Land that is not sold through land agents, etc.
Development Boundaries
Every council has one of these development boundaries. These outline the area for the next 15 years or so. The land where it may be possible to get planning permission and build property on.
This land will be very expensive if in the boundary area because of this. It will also be a target for developers.
You can find your local council’s development boundaries online and download them. You can then check them to see if the land you are looking at is in that boundary.
Where To Find Cheaper Land
If the farmland is based further out into the countryside and away from towns and utilities etc. Then you can find land a lot cheaper. This will be land that is way out of the town’s development boundary.
You will probably find more land that doesn’t come with the “ClawBacks & Covenants”. Meaning this land will also have fewer restrictions on what you can do with it.
That is unless it is in a “National Parkland” then you might find you have some tricky things to deal with.
The drawback to being out so far is the distance to where you live and the land itself. If you ever want to live on the land one day. You might have to go down the total self-sufficient living route.
Don’t get me wrong lots have people have done this. There are even small communities out there like the “Lamas Project”.
This is a group of people that have purchased a parcel of land and practice low-impact living. This type of living is still not without its challenges. You have to able to get along with all the other people in the community.
But this does not say that you could not practice low-impact living of your own. It may turn out to be a little harder, as you won’t have a community of other people to help you.
So What Should You Pay For One Acre Of Farm Land
The price I mentioned above and is £12,000 – £15,000 per acre for Farm Land on the edge of a town and you will probably pay that price or a little more for it. Up to £25,000 and sometimes more than that price if people are willing to pay it.
You may also be asked to a new style of “Auction”. This is where buyers will put their bids in envelopes and see who is willing to pay the most.
But you may still have to purchase more than a one-acre. As one-acre plots are so hard to find and very rarely come up.
If they do come up they are normally building plots and run into hundreds of thousands.
Price Of Land In Different Countries By The ‘Hectare”
I have put together a list of countries’ average price per “Hectare” of farmland which is around 2.4 acres. This is the size of the plot you will probably find around for sale more than a one-acre plot. Plus almost every farmer will sell their land by the ” Hectare”.
- USA $4,130 – $30,000
- UK £10,000 – £20,000
- Wales £18,900
- Scotland £10,990
- France €6,090
- Netherlands €63.000
- Spain €12,744
- Italy €40,153
- Luxuberg €26,030
- Bulgaria €3,937
- Greece €12,528
- Ireland €22,600
- Polland €9,100
- Finland €8,326
- Croatia €2,809
- Romania €1,958
- Russia $2,000 to $5,000
- Switzerland €80,000
- Sweden 23,200 SEK
- Brazil $1500 – $4000
Remember these are average prices and again the price will vary greatly on which part of the country the land is in.
Also taking into account all the other factors attached that will contribute to the land price. So bear this in mind when looking for farmland in your area or country.
The value of the land will depend on what someone is willing to pay.
Remmember land price is dictated by what someone is willing to pay.
If a person has horses who lives local and a couple of acres comes up for sale.
Then they will probably offer over the odds of the market value for the plot.
I have seen one-acre go for £30,000 because someone wanted the land badly
This happens a lot of times because people don’t want to travel far from home
There are easier ways to find land cheaper and without all the dreaded “Covenants & Clawbacks” if you do what I did.
If you want to know how I found my land you can read my post “How To Find Land To Farm”. There is also a way to find free land to farm. This might be out your comfort zone but there are hundreds of acres out there you can get to farm for free. Check out my post “Claim Land For Free UK”.
If you want something bad enough then you never give up. You go out grab the bull by the horns and show it who’s “BOSS”
Author Craig Langstaff
Remember that land is a finite resource, they are not making more of it. The value of land will only keep going up as populations grow. This makes land an excellent investment opportunity.
