A senior appraiser with Farm Credit Canada says a generally strong farm economy is responsible for a 10% increase if land prices last year.
Dale Litt says the largest increases were in the western provincial but prices in Ontario and especially in the south west are up as well.
"There are two main drivers behind this, number one it's a very strong agricultural sector right now and also low interest rates," he says. "As crop prices lower it creates increasing volatility , I don't think producers felt the full effects of low commodity prices last year because of the significant drop in the Canadian dollar."
Litt says a lot of the sales are farmer-to-farmer transactions and reflect a healthy level of agricultural activity.
