Realtor assesses lay of the land

ture land.

Realtor Vern McClelland should be in the trading card business.

The associate broker with RE/Max in Lloydminster exchanged dozens of business cards with visitors at his booth during this year’s Agri-Visions at the Lloyd Ex in February to add to his collection.

“This is actually a really important network event for me. Coming out of COVID, we kind of lost contact with people, that face-to-face contact,” said McClelland, while his son Grant held the fort.

“I find this really fun, I go home exhausted at the end of the day. It’s good to see people and hear how they’re doing.”

McClelland says there is a lot of interest in farmland these days for grain and pas -

“Despite the interest rates, this area has always had a healthy agriculture sector, both in livestock and grain,” he said.

Despite the interest rates, this area has always had a healthy agriculture sector both in livestock and grain.

McClelland is actually surprised by how strong the farmland market is with land values continuing to rise.

The most recent Farm Land Values Report 2021 by Farm Credit Canada (FCC), notes land values rose 7.4 per cent in Saskatchewan and 8.3 per cent for the northwestern region covering Lloydminster.

That same year, Alberta saw an over 3.6 per cent gain in land values with a 1.5 per cent rise for the Lloydminster area.

“FCC is quoted as saying in the 10 years they expect 75 per cent of land titles to transfer, but that doesn’t mean just sales,” said McClelland.

He says there is a lot of estate planning going on with people his age in their 60s or 70s trying to figure out what to do with the land as an asset.

“Do they pass it on to their adult children or do they sell it and not burden their children with that because they live in Vancouver and other places?” asked McClelland.