Value of Okanagan farmland up 14% in 2022 | 24CA News
A brand new report from Farm Credit Canada says the worth of agricultural land within the Okanagan was up considerably in 2022.
The report mentioned the worth of cultivated farmland within the area rose greater than 14 per cent throughout the 12 months to a benchmark value of $34,000 an acre.
Notably, the information doesn’t embrace orchards and vineyards.
Cody Hall, an appraiser with Farm Credit Canada, mentioned excessive demand and low provide of land have been main elements within the worth improve initially of final 12 months.
“We had a big increase in land prices in early 2022 before [interest] rates started to increase and sales started to level out,” mentioned Hall.
An Okanagan actual property agent who focuses on farmland paints an analogous image.
Elya Byrne mentioned in 2021 and within the begin of 2022 there was “unprecedented growth” throughout all totally different elements of the Okanagan actual property market.
However, the actual property agent says rate of interest hikes in 2022 have actually modified the market.
“Inventory has become a little bit stagnant, [and] sales have significantly dropped off since the first half of 2022,” Byrne mentioned.
Still, the supervisor of the BC Land Matching Program that helps join farmers with agricultural property to domesticate shouldn’t be shocked to see the report of land worth will increase within the Okanagan and B.C. as an entire.
“Over the last few years we’ve seen more and more people moving away from urban centres [and] buying farmland and cost has been going up year over year. The end result of that, though, is that farmland is less and less affordable for farmers,” mentioned Darcy Smith who manages the BC Land Matching Program for the group Young Agrarians.
Smith mentioned land entry is the primary barrier to folks moving into the trade and the value of agricultural land means buying property shouldn’t be an choice for a lot of farmers within the Okanagan.
“The amount of money you can earn from farming is so out of touch with the market value of land that it’s often just not going to be possible for a farmer to farm and pay a mortgage,” Smith mentioned.
“What they are really looking for is innovative solutions, whether that is leasing or doing transitions with farmers using creative vendor take-back mortgages or lease-to-own scenarios.”
Smith is urging anybody who at the moment owns farmland that’s not getting used to contact the Young Agrarians about leasing that land to a farmer.
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