Greenville, S.C. – National Land Realty, a national real estate land brokerage company specializing in farm, ranch, country homes, timber, recreational, and commercial development properties, released its 4th annual land real estate agent and broker survey (n=120 ).

Among the key findings is that while 2023 was, in many markets, a year of considerable appreciation of land values, many agents see 2024 as a year where values stabilize. Agents are optimistic about investors using the opportunities offered by this cooling market. Also, agents consider proptech to be most helpful in raising awareness, creating leads, and establishing listing prices.

For the fourth consecutive year, National Land Realty surveyed its agents and brokers about their assessment of the past year and expectations for the coming year.

Augmented Optimism

National Land Realty agents are looking forward to 2024 being another busy year where buyers use the opportunities offered by plateauing land values. 18.49% of agents report being very optimistic about the new year, and 45.38% say they are “somewhat optimistic.”

How optimistic are you about the performance of the land real estate industry over the next 12-18 months? (n=119)

Optimism reigns supreme, especially in Texas, where precisely one-third of the agents surveyed reported being “very optimistic” about what 2024 has in store for them (another third was “somewhat optimistic”). Due to its expanding base of technology companies and low business taxes, Texas is likely to remain one of the hottest real estate markets in the country in 2024.

Stabilizing Land Values

For 2023, 14.29% of agents report that – in their market – land went up in value by 0.1% to 0.5%, 14.95% said it had appreciated by 5.1 to 10%, and 20.95 percent saw an increase in value of 20.95%.

Those numbers look very different from what agents expect for 2024. For the new year, 35.85% of agents expect prices to stabilize (“no change”). Only 23.58% of agents expect land to appreciate or depreciate more than 5 percent. A considerable group of agents (10.38%) report not knowing whether land will appreciate or decline in the new year.

How much appreciation or depreciation do you expect in 2024 for the primary type of land you specialize in? (n=106 )

“It is clear that agents are expecting land values to stabilize in the new year. Agents are optimistic about a temporary slowdown in appreciation enticing potential buyers to pull the trigger, and I think they are right,” says Ronnie Richardson, CEO of National Land Realty.

Proptech for Sales

As was the case last year, agents were also asked about their appreciation of proptech.

Agents consider raising awareness of their business (49.48%), creating leads with potential clients (49.48%), and establishing the right listing price (46.39%) to be three tasks where Proptech can offer the most value to them.

What three tasks do you think PropTech could offer the most support for? (n=97 )

“I think we can safely say that we are the most tech-enabled land brokerage in the country. Our agents are expecting proptech to serve awareness and lead generation purposes. With applications such as Land Tour 360 ®, LandBase™, Land 1031, and our new online auctions platform, we are catering to that need, and our agents and customers can expect to see us continually innovating in the years to come,” says Richardson.