Shropshire pastureland sells for £12,300 an acre
A large stretch of pastureland near Shrewsbury has sold for almost £600,000 – or £12,300 an acre – at auction.
The sale was made at Halls' new auction house in Battlefield, Shrewsbury, for a 48 acre stretch of land at Ebreywood, near Astley.
It went under the hammer for £590,000 after bidding began at £350,000.
The site, which included two acres of woodland, generated great interest and a substantial number of prospective buyers attended the first property auction at the new headquarters.
Auctioneer David Giles said the auction result underlined the strong demand for land, which looks set to continue.
He said: "We are finding that the larger the area of land on offer, the more interest that often ensues."
Last month it was reported that farmland prices in the county had spiralled to a record high of more than £7,500 an acre in the second half of last year.
According to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the average price of an acre of agricultural land in the West Midlands hit £7,625 - fuelled by increased demand and a shortage of availability, with commercial farmers looking to expand.
Many are aiming to capitalise on high prices for certain commodities and looking for large, good quality plots near their own holdings.
However, smaller plots with lower soil quality dropped in price towards the end of the year.
Charles Cowap, of Shropshire's Harper Adams University, who is the RICS rural spokesman, said: "Commercial farmers are willing to pay for good sized blocks of better quality land."
National Farmers Union spokesman Oliver Cartwright said: "Farmland prices have soared in the last decade.
"However, this will be of little consequence to many farmers unless they are looking to sell up, buy extra land or if they are new entrants trying to get on the farming ladder.
"Land price is an issue but does not necessarily mean a closed door for a new entrant looking to get into the industry.
"A lot of weight is attached to what land is worth but for farmers it is what is being produced on that land and the price being paid for produce that is of real importance."
Many in the industry expect the rise in land prices to continue as the supply of commercial farmland continues to fall.
