Farmland in Northern Ireland much pricier than Republic of Ireland - with an acre in Armagh now outstripping Co Dublin
Farmland in Armagh has overtaken that in Co Dublin as the most expensive on the island of Ireland.
That is according to figures compiled by the Irish Farmers Journal, which show Northern Irish prices per acre in general continue to sit comfortably above the Republic
Prices in both jurisdictions rose by about 3% in 2025, with the Journal describing the Northern Irish figure as a "record high" – meaning more farms will be subject to the chancellor Rachel Reeves’ new farm tax.
The publication took a sample of sales across 2025 in both jurisdictions and compared them with a year earlier.
In Northern Ireland, that meant sampling 157 different sales, accounting for 6,200 acres (meanwhile the survey in the Republic took in over 800 sales).
Revealing an average price of £15,202 per acre across the Province, here is how the Journal's survey breaks that down regionally:
Armagh: £22,833 per acre on average
Down: £19,109
Tyrone: £17,578
Antrim: £15,009
Londonderry: £12,623
Fermanagh: £10,380.
In the south, the average price per acre was equivalent to roughly £11,200.
In Co Dublin, the average price per acre was equivalent to roughly £22,750 – just slightly cheaper than an acre in Armagh.
One of the factors driving the relatively high prices in Northern Ireland is that land is in "extremely tight supply," the Journal reports, with a total of 469 farm properties on sale in Northern Ireland during 2025 with the total acreage on offer being slightly down on a year earlier.
It also found that there is a particular demand for farmyards, as opposed to just the land itself, stating that "in particular, farms with disused poultry sheds or cattle sheds with good slurry storage are in demand".
As to why Armagh in particular tops the Irish table of price per acre, Peter McCann, northern correspondent at the Irish Farmers Journal told the News Letter: "Armagh has historically had the highest land prices in NI and that trend continued in 2025.
"A key factor is the tight supply of land coming on the market, where only 0.57% of the land area in the county was publicly advertised for sale last year.
“On the demand side of the market, there is significant interest from farmers across all sectors, particularly dairy, poultry and pigs.
"Business people with farming interests are also active in the land market in Armagh.”
One major reason for keeping a close eye on Northern Irish prices is that any increase will make more farms eligible for paying the Labour government’s new 20% inheritance tax.
It was announced in 2024 that when a farm owner dies and the farm is transferred to their children, any farms worth £1m-plus could be liable for a 20% levy on the transferred value above £1m.
In other words, if a farm was judged to be worth £1.5m, then 20% would have been owed on the sum of £500,000.
However, amid massive pressure from farmers, the government u-turned on this last December and instead raised the threshold from £1m to £2.5m.
This is the Journal’s 19th annual survey in the Republic, and its 16th in Northern Ireland.