Purchase prices for agricultural land continued to rise

Agricultural land purchases decreased in 2022 from the previous year in terms of both the number of purchases and land area, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland’s statistics on agricultural land purchase prices. Land purchase prices increased from 2021 to 2022 by an average of one percent, which is a very low increase rate within Europe. The price of agricultural land increased throughout Finland, except for Southern Finland.

Agricultural land is most expensive in Western Finland

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. It should be noted that 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,” says Anu Koivisto, Senior Statistician at Luke.

The price of Finnish arable land is at the European average

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 says.

Background to the statistics

The statistics for the purchase prices of agricultural land are based on the National Land Survey of Finland’s purchase price statistics data. The dataset includes purchases of unbuilt arable land that have been confirmed by a public purchase witness and cover an area of at least two hectares. Transactions between relatives have not been taken into account. The data for agricultural land purchases in other EU countries is based on Eurostat statistics.