Draft law suggests ban on farmland sale to legal entities extended for 5 years
Draft law No. 8295 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Parliament), extending the ban on the sale of agricultural land to legal entities for 5 years, until 2029.
The draft law aims to amend the transitional provisions of the Land Code and establish that legal entities acquire the right to purchase agricultural land in accordance with this clause from January 1, 2029. Currently, the ban on the sale of farmland to legal entities is valid until the beginning of 2024.
As stated in the explanatory note, in the period of post-war reconstruction, the authorization of the acquisition of agricultural land by legal entities, including foreigners, and the removal of restrictions on the total area of land that a citizen of Ukraine can own, will lead to the concentration of large volumes of land in the hands of large agricultural enterprises.
Small farms suffering significant losses from the hostilities and the resulting economic crisis will be unable to purchase such land plots for lack of sufficient funds.
"The sale of land plots in the absence of effective market pricing mechanisms will lead to losses of budget revenues." At the same time, the amount of potential budget losses is not specified," the authors of the draft law note.
The farmland market in Ukraine was launched on July 1, 2021.
