The average land price in Down last year increased to £17,569/ac – this is 3%, (£466/ac) up on the 2022 average of £17,103/ac.

Down remains the second most expensive county in NI for agricultural land and it ranks in third place across the island of Ireland. In both rankings, it sits behind Armagh, with just £32/ac separating the two counties.

There were 2,314ac of land publicly advertised for sale in the Mourne County in 2023.

This represents an increase of 406ac, or 21%, when compared to 2022 levels. Our figures indicate that the area on the market in Down during 2023 equates to 0.58% of the county’s total arable and grassland area.

Overall, there were 100 separate pieces of land publicly for sale last year, with the average lot standing at 23ac.

This compares to 85 lots averaging 22ac the year before. Our records show that 19% of properties for sale during 2023 included a dwelling house, with 81% of lots deemed non-residential.

Top land price

This is the exactly the same proportion of residential and non-residential farms as 2022.

The top land price recorded in Down was almost £46,000/ac for a small block of farmland on the edge of a town. The price of this land was inflated by long-term development potential, also known as ‘hope value’.

The lowest priced lot was another relatively small property which was just over 10ac in size. It was located in the south of the county and made £9,232/ac.

Just under a fifth of land sales in Down last year made under £10,000/ac and 38% made £10,001-£15,000/ac.

Our survey found 16% of sales fell within the £15,001-20,000/ac bracket and 27% of transactions equated to over £20,000/ac.