More expensive land, yet, up to 8 times below the European average

Despite an increase close to 60% of the average price of agricultural land over the past two years, Romania is still low-priced compared with most of the European countries. According to Mediafax, a report released by DTZ Echinox indicates an average price of 3.100 euro/ha, a price that is 2 up to 8 times lower than in other states across Europe.

DTZ Echinox estimates that a hectare of land is currently traded at an average price of 3100 euro, while about two years ago it was evaluated at almost 2000 euro/ha.

As per the company’s study, there’s no uniform pricing throughout the country, so as the land in North-Eastern and South-Eastern Romania is significantly cheaper – 2.600 up to 2.900 euro/ha, whereas in Muntenia and Banat areas, the price ranges from 3.500 to 3.600 euro/ha. And that is an important progress given the prices recorded in February 2012 that were around 50% lower, according to another DTZ’s report.

‘The average price of agricultural land has almost tripled since 2007 and there is no sign that it will drop, especially in the context of market liberalization in 2014. Agricultural land continues to be an attractive opportunity for both Romanians and foreigners, despite increasing prices. We estimate that prices will grow up to an average of 3.500 – 4.000 euro/ha by 2015’ is stated by the report in question.

Romania has over 17 million hectares of land of which about 10 million are used as arable land, more than 3 million hectares of grassland and some 500.000 hectares of vineyards and orchards.

The main factors attracting investors in this sector are the low prices, good quality soil as well as a wide offer, however the investments have been slowed by the level of land fragmentation, the lack of cadastral documents, bureaucracy and high expenses in order to get the necessary documentation.