Total income from all agricultural sources has increased by 6.8% in 2015, which is above the three-year average of 5.9%. It now stands at £83 per acre and represents 37% of gross income.

Income from the let agricultural portfolio across ‘All Estates’ increased by 4.2% to £101 per acre. The let area on average accounts for three-quarters of the average estate and is now broadly split equally between AHAs and FBTs with a very small acreage of other tenancy agreements.

In-hand farming operations (including contract farming agreements) are found on a relatively small proportion of rural estates’ lowland area and on average represent just over 10% of the total area with the remainder being woodland and other land (Graph 3).

^{Source: Savills Research}

Residential

Income from the residential portfolio on the average estate increased by 1.5% in 2015 to almost £85 per acre and contributed 38% of gross income. In 2015, average AST rents across ‘All Estates’ increased by 2.1% to just over £9,000 per dwelling. Voids on AST properties were around 5% and rental growth has slowed slightly compared with the average three-year annual growth of 2.9% from 2012-2015.

On most rural estates the residential portfolio includes a wide range of property types. These range from large manor houses to one-bedroom flats and accordingly average rental levels per dwelling range from being in excess of £25,000 per annum at the top end to around £6,000 for the smaller properties.

Average regulated rents increased by 5.7% to almost £5,600 per dwelling.