3rd-highest priced farmland region in Canada is in Western Ontario

The Western Ontario region that includes Huron, Perth and Oxford Counties has the third-highest priced farmland in Canada, according to Farm Credit Canada’s 2019 Farmland Values Report released April 6.

Huron, Perth and Oxford counties saw prices rise 6.8 per cent to $18,755 an acre on average, with a range of $10,900 to $26,500.

If you think land prices are high in Ontario, be thankful you don’t farm in parts of British Columbia. According to the report, the highest-priced region for farmland can be found in British Columbia, where land in the Okanagan was sold for $103,288 per acre on average in 2019, with a range of $9,500 to $163,800. Prices there are driven by the wine industry, orchardists and cherry farms.

Land in the South Coast region of B.C. averaged $102,067 per acre, with some land selling for as much as $186,000.

The FCC report included four other Western Ontario regions:
• South Central region (Waterloo, Wellington, Brant, Wentworth, Halton, Peel and York) saw prices rise 7.9 per cent. Farmland sold for $17,834 an acre on average (prices ranged from $10,000 to $25,700).
• Southern region (Essex, Kent, Lambton, Middlesex and Elgin) saw prices rise 7.4 per cent. Farmland sold for $13,352 an acre on average (prices ranged from $7,800 to $21,600).
• South Eastern region (Norfolk, Haldimand and Niagara) saw values rise 4 per cent. Farmland sold for $11,018 an acre on average (prices ranged from $6,500 to $18,000).
• North Western region (Bruce, Grey, Dufferin and Simcoe) saw prices rise 11.8 per cent. Farmland sold for $10,116 an acre on average (prices ranged from $6,100 to $17,500). That increase is the highest among all eight Ontario regions, and was fueled by farmers further south looking north for cheaper land.

Farm Credit Canada excluded the top 5 per cent and bottom 5 per cent of total sales in 2019 to eliminate outliers. While no Ontario regions saw a decrease in farmland prices, Northern Ontario had a zero per cent change for the second year in a row.

A favourable lending environment and an expansion of large farms led to 2019 Ontario farmland prices increasing by 6.7 per cent over 2018, the report said.

“Ontario’s overall farmland value increase continued to be fueled by a strong demand by supply-managed farm operations, crop producers and to some extent, investors, for a very limited amount of available land,” the report said.

That 6.7 per cent rise in Ontario farmland prices in 2019 was the second-highest yearly increase of the past five years.

National farmland values rose 5.2 per cent. Prince Edward Island saw the highest increase in farmland values at 22.6 per cent, followed by New Brunswick at 17.2 per cent. Nova Scotia had the lowest increase at 1.2 per cent.