English Farmland Is Hot Property

The Stubton Estate in Lincolnshire is 1,814 lovely acres of rapeseed and winter wheat. The estate went on the market in February for £16.8 million ($25 million) and attracted about a dozen potential buyers, according to Strutt & Parker, the real estate broker handling the sale. The asking price per acre is more than double what land in the area changed hands for in 2008.

Rural land across England has produced some of the best returns in Europe since the financial crisis began, appreciating by 51 percent from 2008 through 2012, data compiled by agent Knight Frank show. Millionaires’ mansions in London rose 19 percent, the rest of the U.K. housing market lost value, and U.K. stocks fell 8.7 percent during the same period. Even as stocks, up about 10 percent so far this year, enjoy their best start since 1998, investors are likely to keep bidding up prices of farmland, drawn by its relative scarcity, rising commodity prices, and tax breaks. “No one wants to sell land, and there’s a weight of money waiting to get into it,” says Tim Atkinson, a partner at real estate agent JHWalter.