Farmland Index Q2 2026 - Agricultural land market remains rudderless

After months of speculation, Andy Burnham’s Labour Party coup was, in the end, as incisive and ruthless as a surgeon’s scalpel. Keir Starmer really had only one option after Burnham trounced Reform in Makerfield and no other leadership hopefuls threw their hat in the ring.

However, removing the political uncertainty over who, barring an extraordinary turn of events, will be the next Prime Minister looks very unlikely to add some fizz to a becalmed farmland market.

Potential purchasers seem in no hurry to buy, while motivated sellers remain few and far between. The amount of land advertised for sale in the first half of 2026 compared with 2025 fell by almost 25%, according to the Farmers Weekly Land Tracker.

If anything, suspicions that Burnham’s takeover will nudge the Labour Party further to the left are making high-net-worth individuals even more cautious about investing large amounts of money into UK real estate, including farms and landed estates.

Farmers also remain unsure about their future as input costs, like fuel and fertiliser, which were sent rocketing by the Iranian conflict, threaten to badly dent profitability this year and next. Government funding for environmental schemes designed to replace EU subsidies remains uncertain beyond the short-term.

The fallout from Rachel Reeves’s Inheritance Tax raid on family-owned businesses continues to cast a shadow over the industry. Burnham has said he may look again at the controversial changes to Agricultural and Business Property Relief, but nobody is holding their breath, particularly as he also favours the introduction of an annual Land Value Tax.

But with the uncertainty affecting both sides of the buyer/seller equation equally, farmland values remain at historically high levels. In the second quarter of the year, the average value of bare land in England and Wales dropped by just 1.5% to £8,497/acre. That equates to an annual fall of just over 4%.

With few signs of much more land coming to the market over the summer, prices are unlikely to tumble, and quality properties in good locations will still attract firm levels of demand.