Farmland Investments Reach Record Proportions

Farmland purchases across the country have spiked, leading to increased prices and record-high sales. A closer look will find that many of these purchases are coming from outside investors, often via crowdfunding or through different farmland investment brokers. Citing an annual return on investment of roughly 11%, farmland is setting itself apart from any other asset class in the past 30 years, except the Dow Jones REIT Index. For this reason, Bill Gates remains the single largest private owner of farmland in the U.S. with a whopping 242,000 acres in 19 states.

It is estimated that 40% of farmland today is not owned by farmers and in 2020 alone, non-U.S. ownership of land grew by more than 2 million acres. Farmland trends like this have many retiring farmers unsure of their succession plans, while private sales, sealed bids and non-family farm succession programs are rising in popularity with some farmers.

Read more on farmland investments here.