Booming land rental market: ‘I had so many good customers vying to lease a property, I had to put their names in a hat’

“In one case I had so many customers vying to lease a property, the bidding process eventually narrowed it down to four equally good, equally worthy tenants willing to pay.

“So I agreed with the landowner that we would put their names in a hat and the first one out got the land,” he said.

While record prices are currently being paid, the REA survey results show that most of the land leased in 2022 was in the €200-300/ac bracket.

Some prices paid were €100-150 but those in the €300-400/ac region were more common.

Fifty per cent of the grassland with entitlements leased in 2022 made €300-400/ac while only 25pc of the grassland without entitlements made that price.

When it came to tillage, cereal ground with entitlements was also more likely to command the higher rental price.

Mr Dillon says the downside of the buoyant leasing market is an expectation by landowners that they will get top price, even for land that needs work.

“If the tenant gets the land at a reasonable rent, he will put in the work to improve it. No one will pay €500/ac and then be expected to improve the condition of the ground, the fencing, the drainage and the access,” he said.

John Stokes says that while the big rental prices are making all the headlines, landowners are happy to get a smaller price from a dependable tenant that they know.

“Landowners are happy to deal with a good tenant who respects the asset and the owner,” he said.

According to Matthew Conry of Dawsons, top prices are being paid in the Carlow area, where demand is huge, and land is scarce.

“Dairy farmers are trying to rent land in order to stand still rather than expand,” he said.

“Down here we see dairy farmers taking tillage land to grow maize. They are killing two birds with the one stone — supplying some of their own feed while using the extra land to alleviate the nitrates burden.”

In the west Roger McCarrick says prices for rented land have increased substantially but are still behind what is being paid in other parts of the country. Grazing land can be got for €150-200/ac and good grazing ground will cost €200-250/ac.

James Lee of John Lee Newport in Tipperary sees a great hunger for land with all expectations in terms of price being exceeded.

While rental prices in the hill country of North Tipperary didn’t hit the €450-500/ac heights of other places, it made up to €300/ac.

Meanwhile, strong prices continue to be paid. Joe Coogan of Castlecomer recently got €575/ac for 25ac of naked tillage ground at Fermoyle, Durrow, Co Laois. It was leased for five years by a tillage farmer.

Nearby, €450/ac was paid by a dairy farmer for a 12ac parcel of naked grazing ground at Ballymullen Road, Abbeyleix.

At Ballyowen, Ballacolla, a 29ac parcel of grazing ground was withdrawn from letting auction at €380/ac and was leased to a drystock farmer for a higher figure after the auction.

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105ac dairy farm at Newbliss, Co Monaghan

Raymond Fee is handling the letting of a 105ac fully fitted dairy farm in a series of lots at Glassdrummond, Lecklevera, Cashlan & Drumhillagh, Newbliss, Co Monaghan.

The farm is in great heart and divided into paddocks serviced by an internal roadway system and water.

The farm buildings include two six-column double-slatted units with 106 cubicles, eight calving boxes, a large silage pit and a holding yard, along with an eight-unit herringbone milking parlour.

The farm is available as an entire or in three lots consisting of the yard and buildings on 68ac at Glassdrummond and Lecklevera, a 17ac portion of grassland at Cashlan, and a 19.6ac parcel at Drumhillagh.

The farm, which comes with €15,000 in entitlements, is guided at €500/ac.