Renting agricultural land or grass pasture was again the most expensive in the Netherlands of all EU countries in 2022. The Netherlands is also once again in the EU top when it comes to the purchase prices of agricultural land.
Eurostat data shows that the average rental price of arable land in the Netherlands was 843 euros per hectare, against the EU average of 233 euros, followed by Denmark (€561 per hectare) and Greece (€486 per hectare). Rents in 2022 were lowest in Slovakia (€57 per hectare), Croatia (€74 per hectare) and Malta (€89 per hectare), while Latvia was slightly more expensive at €92 per hectare.
There were three EU countries where there were particularly strong regional differences in land prices for 1 hectare of arable land. In the Netherlands, prices ranged from €66,051 in Friesland to €150,644 in Flevoland, with the national average being €85,431 per hectare.
Arable land in Croatia was again the cheapest in the EU in 2022, with an average price of one hectare of €3,700, according to Eurostat data released this week. The cheapest regions to buy 1 hectare of arable land were Övre Norrland (average €2,041) and Mellersta Norrland (€2,437) in Sweden
The average purchase price of a hectare of agricultural land in 2022 was more than 45 times higher than the average rental price. Those prices ranged from a low of €3,700 in Croatia to an average of €233,230 in Malta. The amounts for Malta reflect the limited availability of agricultural land on islands and the pressure for alternative uses. This also applies to the Spanish Canary Islands and some Greek islands.