B.C.’s farmland continues to increase in value, but it’s doing so at a slower rate, a new report says.
Farmland property values rose just 2.7 per cent in 2017, down from 8.2 per cent in 2016 and 6.5 per cent in 2015, Farm Credit Canada said Monday.
Increases of less than one per cent in northern B.C. and the Cariboo-Chilcotin tempered the strong growth seen in southern and coastal B.C.
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Vancouver Island saw a spike of 23.6 per cent, while the south coast saw values go up by 13.9 per cent.
Interior B.C. saw middle-of-the-pack growth with 2.7 per cent in the Thompson-Nicola area, 5.7 per cent in the Okanagan and 4.5 per cent in the Kootenays.
The Okanagan had the highest price per acre of all of B.C. at $91,978 while the island had the lowest at $41,784.
“Farm operations need to be cautious in regions where the growth rate of farmland values has exceeded that of farm incomes in recent years,” said J.P. Gervais, the organization’s chief agricultural economist.
“The good news is Canadian farms are generally in a strong financial position when it comes to net cash income and their balance sheets.”
