‘Race for space’ stokes demand for smaller farms in West Midlands

According to the figures, 94 per cent of the farms publicly marketed last year across the West Midlands were between 50 and 250 acres, while the other six per cent were farms between 250 and 499 acres.

The 2021 figures for all farm sizes are in line with 2020, but for farms of under 250 acres there has been an increase from 2017 (85 per cent), 2018 and 2019 (83 per cent).

A product of various lockdowns has been the well reported ‘race for space’ by urban buyers seeking rural living or indeed a complete change of lifestyle – meaning that the desire for smaller farms and land holdings has remained strong in recent years.

Over the past couple of years we’ve sold a number of these for this purpose, as well as blocks of unequipped bare land. Through our network of offices, we regularly come across purchasers looking to relocate to the West Midlands, with buyers coming from all over the country and abroad.

Some of this demand has come from those looking for property to accommodate tourism and leisure businesses – such as wedding venues and glamping pods – or rural enterprises where value can be added, for example ice-cream production, cider making or online flower delivery. There are also farmers in the market for small units where they can diversify, as well as new urban buyers keen to re-employ their business and marketing skills within a rural setting.

Nationally, of the farms which came to the open market last year, Savills Research found that 75 per cent were holdings of 50 to 250 acres, in essence 517 ‘small’ farms. Meanwhile, 44 per cent of marketed holdings were 50 to 100 acres in size.

It is easy to get distracted by headline grabbing deals involving large farms and estates of 1,000 acres or more. But these are not the norm. Indeed in Great Britain, year after year, the sale of holdings sized 50 to 250 acres far outnumbers larger farm sales.

Our Farmland Value Survey reveals the strength of demand for farmland holdings of all sizes, with an increasingly diverse range of buyers competing in a scarce market. This supply-demand imbalance saw average GB farmland values rise by 6.2 per cent to £7,180 per acre last year, the strongest annual growth since 2014, with poorer and average quality livestock land leading the way with price growth of 8.8 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively in the year to December 2021.

Given the increasingly diversified nature of demand, we now regularly lot larger properties to create smaller farms which we can promote to a targeted and distinct groups of buyers. Indeed when it comes to selling your farm, size does matter and small is often mighty.

Rhydian Scurlock-Jones is rural director at Savills in the West Midlands