Prices of Agri land rise slightly last year

Land purchase prices increased from 2021 to 2022 by an average of one percent, which is a very low increase rate within Europe, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The price of agricultural land increased throughout Finland, except for Southern Finland, said Luke in a press release on Friday.

Agricultural land purchases decreased in 2022 from the previous year in terms of both the number of purchases and land area.

There are large regional differences in the price of agricultural land. While an average of EUR 6,488 was paid for a hectare of arable land in Northern and Eastern Finland in 2022, EUR 10,504 per hectare was paid in Western Finland.

There are differences in the quality of arable land between areas, which accounts for some of the price difference. Another important factor in the determination of the price of arable land is regional demand.

“More than 4,100 hectares of agricultural land was sold to a new owner in 2022, which accounts for 0.2 per cent of the total agricultural land area in Finland. Nearly 540 purchases of agricultural land were made. Compared with the previous year, both the number of land purchases and the total land area sold decreased,” said Anu Koivisto, Senior Statistician of Luke.

In European comparison, the prices of Finnish agricultural land are at the average level. In 2021, the highest land prices were found in the Netherlands, EUR 77,600 per hectare, and the lowest in Croatia, EUR 3,700 per hectare.

The purchase price for agricultural land in Finland in 2021 was EUR 9,009 per hectare. The data for 2022 is still missing for some countries in the Eurostat statistics.

“The price of agricultural land increased from 2021 to 2022 in nearly all European countries. In Finland, the price increased by one per cent, while the average increase in Europe was seven per cent in 2022,” Koivisto said.