Land: Prices
(asked on 8th February 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost per hectare of (1) prime arable land, (2) new woodland, and (3) mature woodland.
Defra purchased arable land price data until 2018, sourced from the Royal Agricultural University Rural Land Market Survey, run by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Defra has also sourced RICS transaction-based data (that include a residential component) for 2019, which is the latest available data set. The data covers the UK and includes regional estimates.
Data for “prime” arable land is not available, and the data is for all classifications of arable land.
The table below shows the latest available arable land price estimates (£/hectare) for the six months to the end of 2018 for survey and the first 6 months of 2019 transaction data respectively:
Country | 2018 RICS Survey price (£/ha) | 2019 RICS Transaction price (£/ha) |
England | 20,650 | 22,258 |
Scotland | 14,826 | (Not Available) |
Wales | 22,857 | 20,059 |
Northern Ireland | 28,934 | 28,280 |
Regional prices in England (2018 RICS survey estimates) range from £19,151 to £22,610 per hectare.
Currently there is no assessment on the cost per hectare of new woodland, and mature woodland as the cost of these woodlands vary significantly depending on location and quality, with many factors contributing to their value.
The general consensus is that established woodland has a typical value of around £10 - 15k per hectare with significant variation around this range depending on size of wood, species composition and volume of timber standing.