ZAGREB, March 22, 2018 – On average, the Netherlands recorded the most expensive purchase price of one hectare of arable land in the EU in 2016 (62,972 euro), while in Croatia it was 22.5 times lower (2,809 euro), Eurostat said on Wednesday.
The price of arable land in every region of the Netherlands was above all other available national averages in the EU. However, among the EU regions for which data are available, the most expensive price for arable land was in the Liguria region of Italy (an average 108,000 euro per hectare).
Arable land was cheapest in Romania, with a hectare costing an average EUR 1,958 in 2016. At the regional level, a hectare of arable land cost least in the Yugozapaden region of Bulgaria (an average 1,165 euro).
In Croatia, a hectare of arable land in the continental region went for 2,739 euro in 2016, 89 euro more than in 2015, while in the Adriatic part of the country it went for 4,651 euro, or 54 more than in 2015.
The level of land prices depends on a number of national (laws), regional (climate, proximity to networks) and localised factors (soil quality, slope, drainage etc.) as well as the market forces of supply and demand (including influence of foreign ownership rules).
From the data available, the strongest growth in land prices of arable land between 2011 and 2016 was in the Czech Republic (a three-fold increase), Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Hungary (a two-fold increase). Prices rose in other member states too, albeit at much lower rates.
The data for Croatia refer only to 2015 and 2016.
