Claire Whitfield, Partner in our Farm and Estate Agency team, shares her advice on how to complete a successful sale of farmland and obtain the best price

Farms and estates are currently selling well, and there are more reasons to buy into land and farming now than for many years. The future looks bright for both buyers and sellers. If you are thinking of selling, the following steps will help get the best possible result:

1. Get the timing right

Timing is everything when selling your farm or estate. Although the market has become much less seasonal, the ideal time to market most farms is from spring to mid-summer – when crops are flourishing and stock farms and sporting estates look their best.

Ensuring potential buyers see it at its best could involve arranging photography when crops are at their peak, or even taking them the year before if an early spring sale is planned.

2. Find the best team

As soon as you make the decision to sell, you need to gather a professional team you can trust. Anyone thinking of selling needs advice from a team covering all aspects of farming and estate management. If you are planning a sale in the future considering your cropping plans, rotations and yields are all vital elements to ensuring the farm is looking and performing at its best when the time comes to sell. Preparing a first-class information pack for a potential buyer’s lawyers immediately puts you in a favourable position to complete a sale. Appointing a lawyer at the very beginning of the process is important.

3. Presentation matters

Presentation is easily overlooked on a working farm, where once trusty but now rusty tractors often sit in yard corners, and trying to force open a gate that won’t budge during a viewing doesn't make the best impression!

Marketing your farm when crops are flourishing either side of the road is the aim, so again timing is crucial.

4. Be prepared

The Scouts’ motto is also the best advice for marketing a farm or estate. If all the paperwork is up to date you can move to contract stage quickly, without hold-ups that could hamper the sale.

5. Maximise the tax benefits

Tax is important. Farmers need to know what their tax liabilities are likely to be before they sell. Tax issues can slow down and even prevent a sale, but getting them right can save a seller very large sums of money. Capital Gains Tax is the biggest issue. The sale of land in a farming business will attract the standard rate of 28 per cent, but if the vendor qualifies for Entrepreneurs’ Relief, this is reduced to 10 per cent. You don’t need to be a mathematician to see the benefits, but you may need a tax expert to ensure eligibility. Another overlooked issue is apportionment of sale price between house and farm to maximise Principal Private Residence Relief (PPRR).

6. Look to the future

Farmers and landowners are usually aware of planning potential on their land, but not always of the latest regulations and subsidies for technologies such as solar farming. Buyers will likely have a keen eye on the future, so highlighting untapped potential could unlock significant latent value.