SCOTTISH farmland is still selling at a steady rate, despite the changeable political climate, according to rural property firm Savills.

The firm's director of rural sales, Evelyn Channing said: "We have recently launched more than 5000 acres to the open market, with a further two substantial units to come on in the north east later this spring.

"The wonderful spell of dry weather since Easter actually hampered favourable conditions in terms of marketing – trees were slow to come into leaf and farmers were concerned about crops not looking at their best for photographing. As a result properties are launching later than in previous years. Perhaps this has been fortunate in retrospect now that we have the General Election behind us," said Ms Channing.

"The response to marketing has been particularly encouraging, with many enquiries new to us and underlining that interest from the south and the rest of the UK in Scottish farms is not just for the larger units."

Her views were echoed by Savills head of rural agency Charles Dudgeon : “These newly launched farms are testing current demand for Scottish farmland, and the early signs are very encouraging with a good levels of interest being generated at this early stage.

“Although average values across Scotland for prime arable land have eased to £7000 per acre (with much regional variation), selling continues to make good commercial sense to many retiring farmers. While politics does not appear to be impacting buyer sentiment, negotiations around Brexit and a potential second Scottish Independence Referendum may impact supply, creating a degree of uncertainty during the next few years which could restrict the amount of land coming to the market," he added.