Great contrast in latest farm property launches

From a 72-acre residential farm with development potential to a Scottish conservation estate covering 3,069 acres, the scale of rural properties looking for new owners this week is wide-ranging.

See also: Private farmland sales – what buyers should consider

Lancashire retirement sale

About to hit the market at a guide price of £5.85m is Sand Villa Farm, in north-west Lancashire.

With no successors in the business, the current owners have made the decision to retire from farming and sell the holding.

This commercial mixed farm, located between Preston and Lancaster, has 364 acres of grass and arable land and 337 acres of salt marsh on flat productive land south of the River Lune.

There is a 40-point rotary milking parlour and a large range of steel-framed buildings including cubicle housing.

The principal accommodation is a four-bedroom period farmhouse built of Cumbrian stone, while there is also a bungalow, again with four bedrooms.

Sand Villa Farm is being sold by Strutt & Parker and is available as a whole or in four lots.

Diversification options

For buyers looking for a farm “ripe for diversification’’, selling agent Savills suggests Marsfield Farm, a ring-fenced livestock farm near Butterknowle, Bishop Auckland, in County Durham.

Marsfield Farm © Saviils

The farm includes 72 acres of productive grassland interspersed with woodland parcels; there are three public footpaths crossing the land.

There is a range of modern and traditional buildings, a silage clamp with timber railway sleeper walls and an above-ground steel slurry store.

The two-bedroom farmhouse requires some renovation.

Savills director Will Douglas says the farm has a great deal to offer aside from commercial farming.

“Marsfield Farm is a rare opportunity to buy a residential farm with potential for further development and expansion in the direction of a purchaser’s choosing, be that agriculture, equestrian, leisure or residential redevelopment, subject to consents,’’ he says.

Savills has set a guide price of £950,000.

The sale is subject to a 25-year overage clause that requires 30% of any uplift in value on the grant of planning consent for non-agricultural or non-equestrian use to be passed to the vendor; this provision excludes the farmstead.

Forestry estate

On the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, the Cashel Forest Trust is selling the Cashel Estate at a price tag of £4.085m for the whole.

Cashel Estate © Goldcrest Land and Forestry Group

Selling agent Goldcrest Land & Forestry Group describes it as an “exceedingly rare and desirable opportunity’’ to buy an estate that offers significant potential for carbon and biodiversity‐based projects.

There is scope to develop it further as a tourist destination, from restaurant and retail offerings to glamping opportunities, it added.

The estate, sitting between Rowardennan and Balmaha, covers 3,069 acres and is managed principally as a native forest with public access encouraged, along with forestry education activities.

Diversification income includes almost £26,000 a year from a hydroelectricity scheme implemented on the estate by DHG Hydro, which draws water from Cashel Glen Forest.

A four‐bedroom farmhouse is currently occupied under a rent‐free licence, while a shooting tenant has a remit to cull deer to reduce browsing.

The estate is for sale as a whole or in up to five lots.

Woodland on a smaller scale is being offered for sale by Galbraith near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. 

Scottish woodland

Lawel Hill Wood, a 121-acre block of mixed species woodland, was planted in 2009 and is made up of 68 acres of conifers, 52 acres of broadleaves and an acre of open ground.

Lawel Hill Wood © Galbraith

Ian Armstrong, who is handling the sale for Galbraith, said the wood benefits from being located near to the public road network and in close proximity to timber markets.

“This sale presents an opportunity for interested parties to purchase a productive block of commercial woodland as a personal investment or to add to an existing portfolio,’’ he says.

“The carbon credits for the forestry have been sold to a third party and therefore the purchaser is required to uphold the obligations of the carbon sale.’’

Galbraith is seeking offers of more than £275,000 for the wood as a whole.