20 September 2019, 06:00, Ukraine

Land price in Ukraine 3x lower from European's

The Ukrainian farmland is at least 3.1x cheaper than the European one if the lowest current level of the average cost per hectare in the EU and Ukraine is compared, Edclub informs.

Among the EU countries, the lowest current average cost per hectare of land is in Romania — about EUR 2.085, the highest is in the Netherlands — almost EUR 68.2 thou.

Over the last 7 years, the cost of land has increased in most EU member states. Most noticeably, farmland prices increased in the Czech Republic —3.5x, Lithuania — almost 3x, Estonia — 2.7x, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland — 2x.

As a result of the long-lasting moratorium on the sale of agricultural land in Ukraine, there is no regulated market, and accordingly, the market prices are not formed. However, in accordance with the current legislation in Ukraine, there is a concept of "normative monetary valuation of land plots."

According to the data of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography & Cadastre (StateGeoCadastre), as of January 1, 2019, the normative monetary valuation of 1 hectare of land by regions ranged from UAH 21.4 thou. (EUR 667) in Zhytomyr region to UAH 33.6 thou. (EUR 1.048) in Cherkasy region.

The most expensive is the lease of agricultural land in the Netherlands — EUR 847 per hectare, the cheapest is in Latvia — EUR 57 per hectare.

In Ukraine, the average rent per hectare of agricultural land in 2018 amounted to UAH 1.613 (EUR 50), 18% more from 2017.

The highest rent per hectare is paid in Cherkasy (UAH 3.525), Poltava (UAH 2.970) and Kharkiv (UAH 2.495) regions. Land rent price was lower in Kherson (UAH 927) and Zaporizhzhya (UAH 878) regions.

As a reminder, the agricultural land market liberalization is scheduled by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (the Government) for October 1st, 2020.