Parcels of “highly productive” arable land in east Suffolk have gone on the market with a combined price tag of £4.35million.
The land, owned by family-owned gardening business Notcutts Ltd, based in Woodbridge, comprises a 320 acre block at Hacheston, and 125 acres at Snape.
Oliver Holloway, a partner at land agents Clarke & Simpson, which is marketing the land, said the decision to sell was part of Notcutts’ expansion strategy. He described it as “a tremendously exciting instruction” and is expecting strong demand.
“The decision has been taken to sell these non-core farming assets to allow further investment into Notcutts’ core gardening business,” he explained. “Notcutts acquired the farms approximately 30 years ago for investment and operational reasons. For many years the land was used for the field production of nursery stock as principally open grown trees and roses. Following the reduction and eventual sale of the nursery to John Woods in 2007, the farms have been farmed by Notcutts and held as long-term investment properties.”
The land comprises 324.76 acres (131.43 hectares) at Hacheston and 128.92 acres (52.17 hectares) at Snape.
The land at Hacheston is being offered as a whole or in three lots with a guide price of £3.2m and the land at Farnham has a guide price of £1.15m.
“With the combination of its fully irrigated arable land, woodland and grassland, we believe that the property provides purchasers with an excellent opportunity to acquire a highly productive compact parcel of land for agricultural, amenity and investment purposes. It also includes a very useful and recently modernised 600 tonne grain store,” said Mr Holloway. “All of the land can be irrigated as there is a large summer abstraction licence available providing 30 million gallons of water. This is supplied via a series of well points and a new pumping station.”
The land has been farmed “to a very high standard” for a number of years through a contract farming arrangement, he said. The cropping rotation includes potatoes, onions, wheat, oil seed rape and barley.
“This is a tremendously exciting instruction for Clarke & Simpson and we are pleased to be offering the land for sale on behalf of our clients Notcutts Ltd, for whom we have acted for many years”.
“Land values are continuing to hit all time highs and prices in Suffolk remain very strong with some incredible prices having been achieved in recent months. Demand from farmers, lifestyle buyers and investors coupled with historically low availability is helping to drive this growth. This is despite cereal prices being down on the levels seen this time last year”.
“There has been very little irrigable land offered on the open market in Suffolk in recent years, and we predict very strong demand for the land and anticipate that interest will come from both farmers and investors”.
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