The November Tea&Talk gave an overview on the land market with the guidance of two of our members, Sándor Németh MRICS and Béla Berdár FRICS, both actively working in the agricultural land sector. The event was very interactive, the audience came with a lot of questions, which were all answered by the guest speakers adding their own experience and views. We have learnt that the Netherlands commands the highest agricultural land prices with an average price being 12times higher than in Hungary (Ft797,000/ha). The reason for this is typically not because of quality, but land price is in line with the density of population.

In Hungary the value of an agricultural land should be established according to a regulation, which is however outdated. The so-called ‘aranykorona’ is still the main basis of the valuation. However, the experts warned that this indicator is not comparable among the different regions of Hungary.

High risk is attached to agricultural production, but still it seems to be a good business to own land and rent it to farmers. Land rents increased with the EU-accession, while average land price also doubled in the last 5 years. Purchase price is mainly determined by the following factors: the potential rent, the size (the larger, the better), accessibility (direct road connection from more directions), crop yield. Approximately 3% of the total amount of agricultural land is sold during a year.