A review of the movement of prices for agricultural land in France since 2010 shows only modest increases in most departments.

The market is worth between €3 billion and €4 billion a year, but it is small in terms of transaction value, with around two-thirds of the each sale worth less than €10K.

Most of the sales are to tenant farmers already installed on the land, whose interests are keenly protected by SAFER, the rural land agency, both of whom benefit from a right of pre-emption.

Although there is a growing concentration of agricultural land among fewer owners (the average size of a farm now stands at 56 hectares, compared to 28 hectares 30 years ago), around two-thirds of farmland is still owned by individual farmers. A rationalisation of sorts is being obtained by greater collaboration between farmers in the marketing and sale of their produce.

Around 20% of sales of non-tenanted land is to non-agricultural buyers, most of whom are investors who seek a change of planning use on the land or who simply rent the land for continued agricultural use.

Although over the past few years there have been modest rises in prices (0.4% in 2016, 1.5% in 2015), last year prices fell for the first time since 1996, by 0.8%.

The average price is now €5,990/hectare for untenanted land, excluding vineyards. By comparison, the average price of farmland in the UK is over €20K/hectare.

As in the UK, there are significant variations in prices across the country, rising from an average of €2,190/ha in the department of Jura (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) to a peak of €17,700/ha in the Bouches-du-Rhône (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur).

At a regional level, the most expensive region for farmland in France is around the Parisian Basin, and in the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône and Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

Lowest average prices are in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region and Pay de la Loire, regions where there is a high concentration of land for grazing of livestock.

Over the past 20 years prices have increased on average by a relatively modest 50%, ex inflation. That compares with an increase of around 400% in the UK over the same period.

The table below shows the average prices in each department for 2010 and 2017. The figures are for untenanted land and exclude vineyards.

Prices within departments are by no means uniform, with sometimes significant variations between different areas, so the information should only be used as a general guide.

View a selection of farms for sale in France