Record high prices of agricultural land result from the fact that there is no real estate reprivatization act. In the first quarter of 2008, the average price of state agricultural land was 31 per cent higher than last year, and amounted PLN 12,000 per hectare. “The prices will increase; but the dynamics of growth will be smaller than in previous years,” says Grażyna Kapelko, spokesperson for the Agricultural Property Agency. According to experts from the agency, the reason for this increase, apart from direct farming subsidies and agricultural production becoming more financially rewarding, is simply the fact that the demand for land exceeds supply, especially in the Kujawy and Wielkopolska Provinces.
Another obstacle on the road to make the state land saleable is the absence of zoning plans in many councils, and a lack of the real estate reprivatization act. “In Poland, the sale of 500,000 hectares of land is being blocked by claims from former owners or their heirs, most of them in Wielkopolska, around 70 per cent, and in Kujawy 65 per cent. The agency received more than 2,600 applications from former owners,” says Grażyna Kapelko. “There is an intense thirst for land in Poland. We currently have a 315-hectare farm in the vicinity of Bojanów for sale. I wanted to divide it into allotments of 30 hectares each, but the farmers want them to be of 5 hectares each,” says Dariusz Świerczyński, deputy manager of the Wielkopolska branch of the Agricultural Property Agency. Infrastructure is another factor that has influence on the price increase. This results from Poland joining the EU and inflow of money from subsidies.
“Land has been converted from agricultural to non-agricultural, and as a result the area of agricultural land becomes smaller,” according to a spokesperson for the Agricultural Property Agency. “At present, every piece of land is worth its weight in gold. The worst fallow is purchased for afforestation because you can count on fixed income while incurring small costs. We recently sold a 413-hectare farm for PLN 8 million, that is, around 20,000 per hectare, while the initial price was twice as low,” says Kazimierz Polkowski, manager of the resources management division in the agency’s branch in Olsztyn. According to Agra Europe, the price of agricultural land in Germany amounted to €8909 per hectare in 2006. The most expensive land was in North Rhine-Westphalia costing €25,973 per hectare, and the cheapest in East Germany. In Brandenburg, the land was cheaper than in Poland where the price amounted €2729 per hectare.
Rzeczpospolita
