Three Dorset farms catch the summer market

Three farming properties totalling about 600 acres have come to the market in Dorset.

This is led by the West Stafford Estate near Dorchester, where 355 acres is available at a guide price of £3.58m. The main lot includes a house and annex, outbuildings and 73 acres. Other lots include 84 acres of bare arable land near Dorchester, a 79-acre block of pasture land and smaller blocks from seven acres upwards.

The second property on the market is Bulbarrow Farm, which sits at one of the highest points in Dorset with views reaching to Portland, the Isle of Wight and the Mendip Hills.

The farm offers 140 acres of level pasture land, which has grown arable crops in the past, a six-bedroom farmhouse with an agricultural restriction and an extensive range of farm buildings. It has a guide price of £1.8m.

Further north on the Somerset border is Benchy Hill Farm at Sandford Orcas, near Sherborne. The farm offers 80 acres of pasture with views and a nine-bay livestock barn, while the modern stone farmhouse has an agricultural tie and a biomass boiler with RHI payments. Its guide price is £1.5m.

Andrew Tuffin, head of farm agency at Symonds & Sampson, says the firm has already agreed sales on a number of farms and land launched in the spring and bare land was regularly achieving in excess of £8,000/acre.

“However, prices can vary tremendously from under £6,000/acre to over £12,000/acre depending on local demand and quality,” he said.

Demand is following on from last year, the firm’s most active for five years, when it sold more than 4,500 acres in the Dorset region. (Symonds & Sampson 01258 472 244)

Over the border in Devon, Stags is launching Greendown Farm with 49 acres at Chittlehampton. With views towards Exmoor, it offers a five-bedroom house, traditional courtyard – partly converted to two cottages – and modern livestock buildings. The guide price is £1.3m. (Stags 01392 680 059)

Lots on the 355-acre West Stafford Estate include a house and bare land.