When asked if young, aspiring farmers ever inquired about buying his farm, Marcus Collinson just laughs.
“No young farmers are buying farms,” he said, adding it’s why he sold his four properties southwest of London, Ont., to an investor in May and June 2020.
The Toronto-based company that bought them is Bonnefield, Canada’s first and largest farm real estate investment corporation. It holds more than $1.4 billion in assets across seven provinces, representing 140,000 acres (nearly 56,656 hectares) of farmland, according to its website.
According to Ontario land registry records, Bonnefield shows up as the owner in 464 premises identification numbers (PIDs), from northern to southern Ontario. Each PID is linked to a specific parcel of land rather than a business or a person.
Opening up the tools for becoming competitive in the market would be a good start. Crazy that it’s harder to start your own farm or restaurant than to build your own web service company or open your own online clothing brand.
I think the number one factor there is real estate. You can’t start a farm out of your apartment and restaurants can’t easily exist out in the boonies where rent is cheaper.