According to Savills' recently-published Agricultural Land Market survey, the value of prime arable land in Scotland rose to an estimated average of £4250 per acre by the year-end, but Dudgeon reveals that he achieved £7000 an arable acre late in 2007.

It now emerges that Scottish farmland values outperformed the UK average in 2007, up by 29% at £2775 an acre at the latest count.

Scottish owner-farmers will have seen their land almost double in value in the past three years.

In comparison, UK farmland values were up by 28% in 2007 equivalent to £3450 per acre, although Savills points out that without the higher percentage of rough upland in the Scottish figure, farmland values north of the border would have been markedly greater.

The Government's own environmental advisers today raised the possibility of building new homes on green belt land.

The Government is planning to build around three million new homes by 2020, of which two million may have to be built on new land.

England's 14 green belts cover 13% of the country - 1.65 million hectares.

It is an area bigger than all of England's national parks combined, but Natural England says it is often neglected or of poor environmental quality.

Sir Martin Doughty, Natural England's Chair, said: "The time has come for a greener green belt.

"We need a 21st century solution to England's housing needs which puts in place a network of green wedges, gaps and corridors, linking the natural environment and people."

Farm land prices last year rose faster than they have for more than a decade as high grain prices encouraged British farmers to buy land to expand production, according to a survey.

City bonuses helped fuel a rise in land prices of 27.9 per cent last year but surveyors say that these "lifestyle" buyers of agricultural land are likely to back off as the turmoil in financial markets affects bonuses.

Incease in income, climate change, growth in energy prices, globalisation and urbanisation are changing food consumption and creating biofuel demand. and created a new world food demand supply equation.

Land prices in the UK have increased by 15 to 30 percent in the past year, with a broad average now of £4,500 per acre. Other countries in central and eastern Europe have experienced gains of 10 to 15 per cent.

The woes of the stock markets are having a countercyclical investment impact on agriculture as investors see a lower risk environment for investment in the case of UK land markets with good capital growth prospect moving forward.

As house prices in uk touching a sky limit. Now its time for farm land in uk. The  farm land values in case of  Wales increases by 16% in 2007 and could see a similar rise this year, according to a real estate agency.

Savills says land in Wales now costs an average of £2,903 an acre, and the agency is predicting a further rise of another 15% in 2008 to £3,388.

Stephen Thompstone, who handles farm sales for Savills in Wales, said the rise could lead to an increase in the amount of land becoming available.

“There hasn’t been a great deal of farm land coming onto the market recently, but we may see that change due to the fact that the rising land values may encourage more people to sell,” said Mr Thompstone.

Source: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/

UK Land Investment has previously been the conserve of high net worth individuals, financial institutions and land professionals. For these groups the acquisition of agricultural and green belt investment land is a well-practiced art. But it is not just these groups who acquire UK land ahead of development - supermarkets and other retailers also buy and hold UK land in anticipation of its higher future value. 

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