Savills has been appointed to value the Queen’s portfolio of around 600,000 acres of rural land

The Crown Estate has appointed Savills rural team as the independent valuer of around 95% of the portfolio, which has an estimated value of £903m.

Savills will now be appointed for five years to provide independent valuations on a range of Crown Estate sites including quarries, farmland, forests and rural homes.

‘In the past six months rural land holdings have shown exciting levels of growth with average values increasing by 29% across Great Britain,’ said Ken Jones, Savills’ head of rural investment and valuation.

The Crown Estate’s rural portfolio includes 269,000 acres of farmland across 780 holdings let on around 500 farming tenancies.

It also has around 26,400 acres of forests, inland mineral rights covering around 284,000 acres, 34 quarries and a further seven dormant quarries.

It also owns around 700 cottages in rural areas.

Alan Meakin, investment strategy manager of The Crown Estate, said the appointment of independent valuers showed the Crown Estate places 'transparency at the heart of its operations.'