Farmland Index Q1 2026 - Farmland treads water

The feeling of treading water that settled over the farmland market in 2025 has shown few signs of dissipating so far this year.

Continued political and economic uncertainty, exacerbated by the current conflict in the Middle East, which has seen input costs like fuel and fertiliser spiral, and poor weather, mean few new farms, blocks of land or estates were put up for sale during the traditional spring selling season.

By the end of March, the acreage of publicly marketed farmland was down 54% on the same period in 2025, itself a period of relative scarcity. Just 5,600 acres were advertised.

Despite a perception by vendors that now is not a good time to sell, demand remains firm from a range of buyers.

Although Rachel Reeves’s changes to the agricultural and business property relief regimes have caused widespread outrage, the opportunity to pass on £5 million of assets free of Inheritance Tax and pay a discounted rate of 20% on anything above that threshold is still attractive to some people.

As a result, average values have remained largely unchanged.

According to the latest results from the Knight Frank Farmland Index, which tracks the value of all types of bare agricultural land in England and Wales, prices dropped by just 0.9% to £8,622/acre in the first quarter of 2026.

Knight Frank’s Farms & Estates team is still achieving £10,000/acre and above for most arable land that it is selling and has already received interest on one block that it recently launched in the south of England. Over a 12-month period, average values are down only 5%.

With so few sales testing the market, the big question is when the farmland market will build up enough momentum to break free from its current state of inertia this year. More sales are in the pipeline for the second half of April and into May, but there is little evidence that the volume will be high enough to put significant pressure on prices.

It appears that 2026 will be another year of ‘wait-and-see’ for both buyers and vendors.