Agricultural land five times cheaper in Romania than in other countries of Europe
15 December 2009
The price of land in Romania is five times cheaper than in the other countries, on a long term this difference disappearing, so that at present the acquisition of properties on the Romanian market is an opportunity, the real estate consultants say.
“In Austria the land is less fertile than in Romania and it costs 10,000 euro/ha, in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia the price is 5,000 euro/ha. In Romania, land sells at 2,000 euro/ha. On long term, in the European Union there will be no differences in price”, Thomas Prader says, one of the shareholders of Solproiect which deals with acquisition and joining of agricultural land in Romania. Solproiect was set up in 2003 and until now it has invested five million euro to acquire almost 6,000 ha in Calarasi, Braila, Tulcea and Constanta to set up agricultural farms.
“Any investment in agricultural land is very good, and on long term it will prove a profitable investment. We know the quality of land in Romania, it was the main provider of grains for Austria” Prader says. The Solproiect representatives consider that following the crisis on the real estate market, the prices of agricultural land of good quality were not reduced, but only the supporting costs, as a result of improving the mechanism of acquisition of this type of property.
“When I started to buy, there were no documents , no measurements, the owners did not know where the land was. The documents were more expensive than the land”, Mihai Romaniuc, general manager of Solproiect said.
According to the representative of the real estate consulting company King Sturge in Romania the agricultural land is 9.4 million ha, 5% of the total of almost 172 million ha in Europe.
As regards prices, the King Sturge data show that in Romania the average is 2,000 – 3,000 euro/ha while in France it is 6,000 – 6,500 euro/ha, in Serbia 7,000 – 8,000 euro/ha and in Ukraine 6,000 – 7,000 euro/ha.
“The requests for agricultural land acquisition are for surfaces of 100 – 150 ha especially for agricultural exploitation, but for the change of use as well. At the same time, 44% of the properties cover land smaller than one ha, while 22% of the present exploitations can become profitable according to European standards” Radu Boitan, managing partner King Sturge says. He showed that over 60% of the farms produce for own consumption.
“In the last 15 years the farmers have not had a profitable business and the opportunity would be to change the use of the land and sell it to developers. Thus, the agricultural land will be reduced every year which is worrying in the whole of Europe” Boitan said. The King Sturge representative mentioned that the value of land which is transferable from agricultural to real estate investment grows a lot, reaching 25-40 euro/square metre for industrial development, at 70-300 euro/sq.metre for commercial centres and 150 euro/sq.m. for offices” Boitan said.
Source: ACT Media Romanian News Agency
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