2024 Market Insight

A tale of two halves is how the 2024 farms and estates market in England will be looked back on. At the beginning of the year we saw the supply of acres continuing to increase from the lull of post Brexit and Covid years. The second half of the year saw politics come into play with a general election followed by a long awaited Budget stalling decision making and therefore market activity.

Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the significant changes announced by the new Labour government in Octobers Budget, notably IHT reform we can start to assess whether the noise about land values reducing is actually going to come to fruition.

Our own view is that there will still have to be a significant correction in the supply/demand in-balance for this to happen. IHT planning has often been a secondary, not primary reason for buyers to invest in farmland. It should also be remembered that owning farmland under the proposed changes from April 2026 will still be more tax efficient than other asset classes given the ongoing reliefs, albeit not at the same levels.  

A large proportion of transactions in 2024, often the larger ones of over 500 acres traded off market to adjoining landowners or ones within the immediate locality. It is expected that this trend will continue into the first half of 2025. 

Please contact Matt on +44 (0) 7912 391202 or at matt@stoneacreadvisors.com for an informal chat about your land requirements.