Farmland values in southwestern Ontario were steady for 2025, although demand for land was lower in areas with comparatively fewer livestock.
Pockets of significant value jumps, and even retreating prices, were also features of the latest Southwestern Ontario Land Values report from London-based Valco Consultants. Published annually, the report provides an overview of both farmland values and the economic context within which changes in value occur, across Huron, Perth, Oxford, Middlesex, Elgin, Lambton, Kent, Essex, Brue, Grey and Wellington counties.
WHY IT MATTERS: Farmland values affect how farmers plan for their businesses and can affect their ability to expand and grow.
Ryan Parker, a Valco partner and author of the report, said lack of demand in some areas — southwest of London and along Lake Erie, for example — was showing up as expired listings rather than in sold prices. Overall, the number of listings was “up significantly from three years ago, as is the number of farms offered for sale but do not sell.” This coincided with tightening margins in the crop sector.
The trend follows FCC’s farmland values report for 2025.
“The situation could culminate in a couple of ways. One way would be that vendors lower their expectations and sell these farms for less, which will have a downward impact on overall farmland values. Conversely, demand could increase due to any number of factors (most likely a combination of higher crop prices and lower interest rates).”
Ryan Parker
Valco Consultants
“Looking to the year ahead, I do expect 2026 to bring much more of the same … the key factor will be the response from vendors.
Speaking in a later interview, Parker said instances of lower sale prices and failure to sell are, at least in part, a result of “vendor expectation getting out of line.”
“Vendors would hear a farm sell for $20,000 (per acre), then instantly say, ‘I want $22,000.’ And that was working,” he said. “I do think there is quite a bit of stuff listed not selling. If it was listed more sharply it might, I do think that’s a pretty big part of it.”
With a mass of farmer retirements in the coming years, Parker said it’s likely many farms will begin selling in larger blocks — 300 or 500 acres at a time, for example — rather than individual 50- or 100-acre lot sales.
“In 10 or 15 years, maybe we’ll see that 500-acre block, maybe that guy who’s 75 years old, no debt and no next generation. At some point, he’s going to have to sell,” said Parker. However, he also wondered whether the retention of farmland by non-farming family — a practice he assessed to be more common in the United States — might also become more common.
“The United States always seems to have chatter about legacy land. Land that’s been owned for multiple generations, where they have not lived on or farmed that land. We do not have a lot of that in Ontario. I do wonder if that will become more of a strategy that advisors will push some estate clients into,” said Parker. “If we do get a flush of sales, maybe that’s something that can ease that flow a bit.”
In light of global trade tensions, Parker also said “anything that stresses margins” will have an impact on how land values change. Although, at least so far, Ontario farm country appears to be weathering the storm.
Valco Consultants’ Southwestern Ontario 2025 land value report highlights
- $27, 258 – average per acre value across all 11 counties in 2025
- $6,000 – average per acre value across all 11 counties in 2010
- $38,000 – average per acre value in Perth and Oxford
- $20,000 – average per acre value in Essex County
- 10.7 per cent – average annual value change from 2010 to 2025
- 2.7 per cent – overall value increase from 2024 to 2025
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