Choice Farmland hits $4,000 an acre and more
"Will sell in no time"
By Patrick Meagher and Darren Matte
Eastern Ontario farmland prices continue to creep upwards – rising between one and two per cent every six months — with top prices for the best farmland reaching $4,000 an acre and higher.
Eastern Ontario prices, however, are moving more slowly than in other areas of the province. The latest figures show that farmland prices across Ontario increased 1.7 per cent in the last six months of last year over the same period the year before, reports Farm Credit Canada. Prices in eastern Ontario in the same period rose 1.2 per cent.
Prices, however, are still impressive. Iroquois real estate agent Marcel Smellink says the base price for good tile drained land is $3,000. "In Chesterville, Winchester and Brinston, good tile- drained land will sell for $4,000 an acre and it sells in no time," he said. "Pieces have sold for $5,000 in the Crysler area."
Here are some prices paid per-acre for tile-drained farm land in some areas in the past 12 months. (Sources are listed in brackets):
• Osgoode, Mountain and Winchester: high $3,500, average $2,886, low $2,314. (FCC)
• East Hawkesbury, Lochiel and Lancaster, high $2,778, average $1,968, low $1,000. (FCC)
• Kawartha Lakes Region: high $3,600, average $2,800, and low $2,000. (City of Kawartha Lakes)
• Kingston, to the Quebec Border, high $4,000, average $2,500, and low $1,000. (Allan Earle, Culligan Real Estate Ltd.)
In rural Ottawa this year, the average farm, with house, sold for $310,000, said Remax rural sales representative, Matt Richling. Remax currently has a 17-acre plot that they are trying to sell to a developer for $3.3 million, he said.
The trend of land prices strengthening in areas beyond Toronto’s greenbelt continued, as speculative bidding continued to push prices. This was seen particularly in the counties of Haldimand, Simcoe, Durham, Northumberland, Victoria, Peterborough and Prince Edward County.
The trend of urban buyers competing for rural land continues. This has been seen primarily just east of Toronto, where urban buyers are purchasing 25 to 50 acres and building homes on them and then renting out some of their land to farmers. "The reason this is happening is because urban buyers have what is called non-farm income and can afford to pay for the land," says FCC’s report co-ordinator Bob Wilson.
City of Kawartha Lakes agriculture development officer, Carolyn Puterbough, says they have noticed urban buyers coming from Toronto and purchasing land. The problem is that the land they purchase deteriorates to a point where it can no longer be farmed, she said. She points out that land prices increased with the creation of Toronto’s greenbelt.