Farmland values topped £10,000 per acre for the first time ever in the second quarter of 2014 according to rural property services providers, Smiths Gore. Values have increased by 6 per cent over the past 12 months. In the South West of the country, there are 23 per cent more farms for sale compared with the same period in 2013.

The value of equipped land (land with a house and/or buildings) increased by 2 per cent to an average of £11,000 per acre.

Bare land values increased 2 per cent to £7,200 per acre, demonstrating a return to the levels last witnessed by the market in 3Q2013.

Values are at record highs throughout the UK and Smiths Gore’s Farmland Market Model estimates that they will continue to remain at similar levels for the forseeable future.

“Investors continue to move their money into the ‘safe haven’ of farmland as an investment, with its obvious tax advantages, but farmers remain the dominant, if slightly more cautious, buyers, which makes lotting and marketing land attractively even more important than usual.

“Demand from both investors and farmer buyers is supporting competition for land and driving capital growth” according to Simon Derby of Smiths Gore’s Taunton office.