A total of 33,982ac of agricultural land was sold in 2016, with a value of €193.3 million, according to the latest statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The median price – the middle value in the total list of prices recorded last year – of agricultural land sold nationally was €6,366/ac, the CSO added.
However, the average price of agricultural land sold in 2016 (the total value divided by the total volume sold) equated to closer to €5,688/ac.
Where was land changing hands?
Out of the total volume of land sold in 2016, the west of Ireland came out with the highest volume of land sold. A total of 8,267ac changed hands in the west last year, representing approximately 24% of the entire volume sold.
This equated to just 8.5% of the total volume of land that was sold, the figures show.
Value and prices
Median prices varied depending on the type of land being sold. The national median price of arable land last year equalled to €10,025/ac for example.
On the other hand, the national median price of permanent grassland was €6,249/ac.
This, coincidentally, was the region with the highest median price at €9,997/ac, according to the CSO.
With just 8.5% of the total value of sales completed last year, the mid-west was the region with the lowest value of land sold in 2016. This is also the region with lowest volume of land sold.
The region with the lowest median price was the west – the area with the highest volume of land sold – with a price of €4,688/ac.