The weighted average price of land in Ukraine in January-September 2023 increased by 10.4% to 38.5 thousand UAH/ha, according to a report on the state of the land market in Ukraine, prepared by experts of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) with the support of the USAID AGRO Program.
Analysts noted that 31.1 million hectares of land in Ukraine are privately owned, so a 10.4% price increase is equal to an increase in the capitalization of the agricultural land market by UAH 115.1 billion, which corresponds to about a tenth of the country’s general budget revenues in 2023.
“In September 2023, the weighted average price of one hectare of all agricultural land amounted to UAH 38.45 thousand. At the same time, the weighted average price of land designated for commercial agricultural production was higher than the average and amounted to UAH 39.0 thousand per hectare. This means that “commodity” land is valued by the market somewhat more than other types of agricultural land in Ukraine,” the study says.
According to KSE experts, the highest prices for agricultural land are observed in Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Volyn and Ternopil regions, as well as Kyiv and Poltava regions. The lowest prices are in the areas affected by hostilities and in the frontline regions.
According to the study, in the third quarter of 2023, 21.4 thousand transactions of sale and purchase of agricultural land covering 43.5 thousand hectares were carried out, which is slightly different from the second quarter, when 44.0 thousand hectares of farmland were sold under the same number of sale and purchase agreements. At the same time, in the second and third quarters of 2023, the land market was significantly more active than in the first quarter, when 15.7 thousand transactions with a total area of 32 thousand hectares were concluded.
In the fourth quarter, the land market may grow even more, as after the harvest is over and additional resources are released for land purchases, buyers are expected to become more active and demand for land plots is expected to increase, KSE predicts.
