Agro-Companies Buy Up 18 Percent of Ukraine’s Legal Land Market

Starting from Jan. 1, 2024, companies were legally free to purchase land in Ukraine with first results showing no sign of the feared monopoly, dollar price lower than pre-war, and the Poltavska region proving popular among buyers in the agricultural market. 

Agricultural companies accounted for 83.5 percent of all transactions among legal entities purchasing land plots, acquiring 14,500 hectares (358,000 acres) during the first five months of 2024, according to the authors of the “Land Market Review Ukraine”report by the Agrocentre of Kyiv School of Economics.

The remaining land purchased by legal entities during the first half of 2024 involving land used for leasing, managing, and sale of movable and immovable property.

Since the beginning of 2024, the average cost of land per hectare has nominally increased in hryvnia by less than 20 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2023, it was Hr. 37,800 per hectare, while in the second quarter of 2024, it reached Hr. 43,500 per hectare.

However, the price is merely keeping step with inflation and the weakening of the hryvnia. The dollar price per hectare was $1,161 in July 2021 and $1,086 per hectare in June 2024.

The highest land prices in 2024 were recorded in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Lviv, and Ternopil regions. The lowest prices were recorded, unsurprisingly, in the regions most affected by hostilities, such as Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson, and Sumy regions.

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Source: Land Market Review Ukraine report, Agrocenter of Kyiv School of Economics. 

Ukraine’s politicians speculated that Western agrarian holdings would “buy all the land”, but the authors’ of the report found no proof of the establishing of a monopoly on the market. The total share of legal entities in the agricultural land market (by land area purchased) during this period was 18.0 percent. 

Legal entities purchased the most land in the Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Source: Land Market Review Ukraine report, Agrocenter of Kyiv School of Economics. 

Buying and selling ranked third in popularity among transactions, with inheritance and land leases being more popular. Electronic auctions on the Prozorro.Sales platform, which have been taking place since Oct. 2021, played a significant role in the success of leasing municipal land.

Through auctions, more than 8,000 land plots of communal ownership were leased, totaling 71,200 hectares. Communities benefit from this, earning Hr. 623.5 million ($16 million) in annual income from such leases, according to the report's authors. The starting rent price per hectare increased from Hr. 2,400($91,6) to Hr. 8,800 ($220) per hectare.