Single Farm Payment Entitlement Trading

C & D Property Services are now trading Scottish & English Entitlements in readiness for claiming the 2012 payment onwards. There is expected to be strong demand for Standard Scottish Entitlements once again this year which, coupled with limited supply will help to maintain a strong trade. It is expected that higher value entitlements are likely to change hands in excess of 1.75 times their annual value. This could be the year for retired farmers to sell off some or all of their entitlements and take advantage of a firm market coupled with future uncertainties over the Euro.

English entitlements are at present readily available with only a limited number of transactions taking place. However as the trading season progresses demand is likely to increase as buyers look to take advantage of the possibility of claiming three years payments on purchased entitlements for the cost of one year’s claim.

Entitlements can be sold, leased or transferred through inheritance and can be either sold with or without land but only leased with land. Sales without land are the easiest to deal with and will be the most popular method of trading. V.A.T. will be payable on Entitlements if the seller is V.A.T. registered. Unless otherwise stated all our transfers of Entitlements will be by sale without land.

Who will want to buy/sell Entitlements

• Farmers who have bought or rented land without Entitlements (naked acres) will wish to buy Entitlements.

• Farmers who have low value Entitlements may wish to trade up to higher value Entitlements to obtain a higher annual income per hectare. On the other hand farmers with higher value Entitlements may wish to trade down to low value Entitlements to obtain a higher initial capital payment although they will receive a lower annual income per hectare.

Lot Sizes

Lot sizes can be split to suit the buyer but Entitlements cannot be stacked up i.e. you cannot buy two hectares of Entitlement and stack it on one hectare of land. You can, however, sell part of your Entitlement, which is say low value, and replace it with the same or smaller area of higher value Entitlement

Further Information

If you have any queries or require any further information regarding the trading of Entitlements then please contact Giles Lane at our Longtown office on (01228) 792299.

If you would like to sell Entitlements then please complete the instruction form and then either e-mail or post it back to us with evidence showing what Entitlements you have been awarded i.e. copies of the first two pages of your 2011 Single Application Form or latest statement of entitlements from SGRPID in Scotland or a letter from the RPA confirming that the Entitlements have been definitively established in England.