In 2017, there was 32,990 acres of agricultural land sold in Ireland for a total value of €161.1 million at a median price1 of €6,626. This volume of agricultural land sold represented 0.3% of all the available agricultural land in Ireland and there was 2.9% drop in the volume of agricultural land sold when compared with 2016.
The mean price1 in 2017 was €4,883 per acre with a mean transaction size of 20.7 acres.
|
It should be noted that median and mean prices are not appropriate for measuring the evolution of land prices as the mix of agricultural land sold in different periods can change over time. |
1 - The median price is the middle value when the transactions are sorted in order of price per acre. That is to say that half of the transactions are above the median price and half of the transactions are below it. The mean price is calculated by taking the total money spent on agricultural land in the year divided by the total area of land sold. The advantage of taking the median price over the mean price is that it is not skewed by extremely large or small values and therefore gives a better idea of the typical value. Further information on the CSO's use of median and means can be found here.
| Table 1.1 - National Indicators by Year | |||||
| Median Price in Ireland | Mean Price in Ireland | No. of Transactions of Agricultural Land in Ireland | Volume of Transactions of Agricultural Land in Ireland | Value of Transactions of Agricultural Land in Ireland | |
| Year | € / ac | € / ac | Acres | € million | |
| 2015 | 6,647 | 5,965 | 2,656 | 53,861 | 321.264 |
| 2016 | 6,366 | 5,689 | 1,719 | 33,982 | 193.312 |
| 2017¹ | 6,626 | 4,883 | 1,591 | 32,990 | 161.080 |
| ¹ 2017 Agricultural Land Prices are subject to revision | |||||
Using information from the CSO's Census of Agriculture, it is possible to assign a land type to the transaction based on the Census of Agriculture Small Area in which the transaction occurs. (See background notes for more information.)
As shown in Figure 1.1, Figure 1.2 and Table 1.2, there is a large difference in the price of arable land and permanent grassland in Ireland. Arable land made up 3.65% of the total agricultural land sold in Ireland, however, it accounted for 7.58% of the total value of agricultural land sold.
In 2017, the median price for arable land was €10,507 per acre while the median price for permanent grassland was €6,390 per acre.
| X-axis label | % | Percentage of Total Land Sold by Land Type |
|---|---|
| Permanent Grassland | 96.35 |
| Arable Land | 3.65 |
| X-axis label | % | Percentage of Total Land Sold by Land Type |
|---|---|
| Permanent Grassland | 92.42 |
| Arable Land | 7.58 |
| Table 1.2 - National Indicators by Year and Land Type | ||||||
| Median Price in Ireland | Mean Price in Ireland | No. of Transactions of Agricultural Land in Ireland | Volume of Transactions of Agricultural Land in Ireland | Value of Transactions of Agricultural Land in Ireland | ||
| Land Description | Year | € / ac | € / ac | Acres | € million | |
| Arable Land | 2015 | 10,293 | 9,794 | 167 | 3,272 | 32.048 |
| 2016 | 10,025 | 9,062 | 85 | 2,264 | 20.518 | |
| 2017¹ | 10,507 | 10,148 | 80 | 1,203 | 12.205 | |
| Permanent Grassland | 2015 | 6,390 | 5,717 | 2489 | 50,588 | 289.216 |
| 2016 | 6,249 | 5,448 | 1634 | 31,718 | 172.795 | |
| 2017¹ | 6,390 | 4,683 | 1511 | 31,787 | 148.875 | |
| ¹ 2017 Agricultural Land Prices are subject to revision | ||||||
Go to next chapter >>> Regional Breakdown
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.