Average price for acre of land exceeds £15k in NI
Getty ImagesAverage farmland prices across Northern Ireland have reached another record high, according to the latest annual survey by the Irish Farmers' Journal.
An acre of land cost £15,202 in 2025 - the first time the overall average has exceeded £15,000.
Four counties - Armagh, Antrim, Tyrone and Fermanagh - reached record amounts, while Down and Londonderry had their second highest values ever. County Armagh has overtaken Dublin as the most expensive place on the island of Ireland to buy land, with an average price of £22,833.
That will add to concerns among farmers in Northern Ireland that more of them could be exposed to Inheritance Tax in the future on land values alone.
Prices rose almost everywhere
County Armagh remained top of the table.
County Down was the only place in Northern Ireland to record a fall in average prices - it dropped slightly to £19,109 per acre.
Land prices in County Tyrone rose by 24% to a high of £17,578 per acre.
Antrim's average reached £15,009, while Derry recorded its second highest ever price of £12,623.
County Fermanagh remained the cheapest place in Northern Ireland to buy land, at £10,380. That was still an increase of 17%.
The survey is based on 157 transactions covering more than 6,200 acres.
At the top end of the market, the top quarter of sales averaged £27,232 per acre - an increase of £4,450 compared to 2024.
The survey found the quantity of land for sale had fallen, compared to 2024.
In 2025, 12,994 acres and 469 agricultural properties were publicly advertised for sale, making an average lot of 28 acres.
Counties in Northern Ireland take four of the top ten spots for land prices on the island of Ireland.
The land price average in Northern Ireland is significantly higher than in the Republic, where an acre costs around €12,876.
Why is land so expensive?
Land is in limited supply in Northern Ireland and farmland does not frequently come up for sale.
Small parcels of land can attract great interest from buyers which may stimulate bidding wars.
And with tight planning restrictions for farmyard buildings, any plot that offers disused sheds or good slurry storage can skew the local market.
The 3% increase in land values in the past year underlines the exposure of Northern Ireland farms to inheritance tax, despite the increase in thresholds in 2025.
The thresholds are fixed until 2031, while land seems likely only to gain in value.
'A once in a generation thing'
Peter McCann from the Irish Farmers' Journal said that a "low supply" of land coming onto the market was a major reason behind the cost increasing.
He said that a farmer having the opportunity to buy land beside their farm was "potentially a once in a generation thing that could happen".
McCann added that given the current rules and restrictions facing farmers "land is your licence to expand again".
"It is remarkable things still managed to push on even though this huge uncertainty was hanging over farmers for the vast majority of 2025".
