Farmland prices doubled in the space of five years

Farmers planning to sell land a few years ago who decided to wait a little longer before doing so made a golden decision. While agricultural land sold for just over 18,000 euro per hectare in the first quarter of 1995, the price had risen to over 37,000 euro per hectare of grassland and over 38,000 euro per hectare of arable land by the third quarter of 2000.

Since the beginning of 1999 farmland prices have risen by nearly 600 euro per hectare a month on average. Between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1998 land prices rose by less than 200 euro a month on average.

Farmland prices

Four and a half euro per square metre

Today, agricultural land increasingly costs more than 4.5 euro per square metre. However, the prices vary per province. In 2000 prices of land in Flevoland, Gelderland, Utrecht, South Holland and North Brabant regularly exceeded this limit. The cheapest land can be found in the provinces Groningen and Drenthe, where the average price is between 2.5 and 2.7 euro per square metre.

Farmland prices follow the same trend as other kinds of real estate. For instance, at the beginning of 1996 the average mortgage for homes was nearly 73,000 euro, while in the third quarter of 2000 it had increased to just over 3136,000 euro.

Cor Pierik