Since January 2024, the land market has been open to legal entities, but it has not undergone significant changes. Mostly, companies that owned a significant number of land plots sell land rather than buy it. In total, since the beginning of the year, companies have sold more than 200 hectares of land, according to the State Land Cadastre.
Since January 2024, the land market has been open to legal entities. From now on, companies have the right to officially purchase up to 10 thousand hectares of land. Despite expectations, businesses have started selling the land they already own rather than buying new land. Companies have already sold 207 hectares of land in the first two weeks of 2024.
Currently, the State Land Cadastre tracks 281 Ukrainian companies, each of which owns land plots of more than 100 hectares.
Which companies in Ukraine own the most land?
The largest amount of land in Ukraine is currently owned by SVITANOK Agricultural Company: more than 5 thousand hectares. The second place is taken by Druzhkivka Ore Mining: 3.3 thousand hectares. ZEMLETRADE closes the top three with 3.1 thousand hectares.
Out of the top 10 companies that own the largest amount of land in the country, only Zemletrade has sold 20 hectares since the land market was opened. Other businesses have not yet conducted any land transactions.
Since the beginning of the year, two companies have already left the SLC’s attention and, accordingly, the top landowners. These businesses have sold off their land bank so that they have less than 100 hectares of land. We are talking about Dolyna and Ekor Garden CTS. As of January 1, 2024, these companies owned 388 and 120 hectares of land, respectively.
If a society does not have a goal, then it is an ordinary society that lives by the same rules or has certain common features – the same society as a herd of sheep.
Civil society has been talked about for a long time. For the average citizen, if he has heard about civil society, it is something that some experts and some scientists have for their expert-scientific work, and it has no relation to real life.
What is civil society? This is a society that has a common goal and actively wants to achieve it. This is a society of non-state influence. It can either support the government or oppose it.
A developed civil society is a necessary element of democracy and a sign of statehood. A developed civil society is able to realize public interests and influence the formation of power.
The development of civil society in Ukraine is a practical way to European integration.
It is not surprising that European countries take care of the development of civil society in Ukraine.
The level of development of civil society is determined by the level of the goal, set tasks, formed methods, mechanisms and tools for achieving the goal.
Civil society is a collection of associations of citizens. Therefore, the association of citizens is the primary component of civil society.
The artificial creation of associations of citizens who do not have a common permanent goal or the creation of artificial associations became the reason for the lack of feeling or perception by Ukrainians of civil society as something important in the formation and development of social processes.
The development of civil society requires real associations of citizens that have a socially important and useful goal, set tasks, formed methods, developed mechanisms and effective tools for achieving the goal.
The community of owners of agricultural land is a potential association of citizens – a society that meets all the criteria and requirements set forth by the development of civil society.
It is easy for the community of land owners to define a goal, according to which to set tasks, form methods, develop mechanisms and implement them into possible means (tools).
The goal for any land owner is to increase the income from the land and ensure that the land is cared for – that is, the income from the land must be optimally efficient.
Among the tasks of the association of land owners is the transition to public organized independent land management, which ensures that any land owner, regardless of age, financial, material or organizational capabilities, can carry out independent management and receive the maximum possible profit from the use of land.
To date, the implementation of self-management and its development can take place without the participation and assistance of the state.
The association of land owners for the development of independent land management is the most powerful step towards the development of civil society in Ukraine.
In order to speed up the process of transition to independent land management, legislative changes are needed, which will consist in stopping the violation of the rights of land owners, creating favorable opportunities for land owners for independent management, including giving land owners the right to terminate the land lease agreement at their own will. This acceleration is also the task of unifying land owners.
Considering that there are more than 5 million owners of agricultural land in Ukraine, the association of land owners is the most powerful community in Ukraine.
At the same time, it is surprising that the authorities look into the mouths of several hundred tenants and appease their interests and whims, and do it as zealously as the Russian occupiers.
Perhaps at least the representatives of the European community will stop making mistakes of the authorities and turn their face to millions of landowners and their family members.
Roman Golovin, head of the All-Ukrainian Association of Land Owners
Experts estimate the average cost of 1 hectare of agricultural land after the opening of the land market on July 1 at $2,200, by the end of the year its cost will reach $2,500/ha, co-founder of the Land Club association of land investors Oleksandr Kolotilin has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The start of the market is on average planned at the level of $2,200 per ha. But at the same time, it must be clearly understood that the agricultural land market existed before July 1, 2021. Still, 5 million hectares of land allocated within the framework of free privatization for private farming for all the years of Ukraine’s independence is also a sufficient amount of land. Thus, the price of land that was under the moratorium correlates with the market that has existed all this time,” Kolotilin, who in 2017-2019 was the acting head of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, said.
He clarified that the opening of the land market will be beneficial primarily to its sellers, since at the first stage of the land reform implementation there will be no more than 10% of the total number of interested parties who want to sell their shares.
“Since there are many more people who want to buy or invest in agricultural land today than offers, this will gradually push the price up. I do not think that by January 1, 2022 the situation will change dramatically, but it is definitely worth expecting an increase in prices. On average, the price will reach the level of $2,500/ha,” the expert noted.
According to him, in different regions and even different districts of the same region, the cost of land differs quite strongly.
“If, for example, in the north and center of Ukraine land prices are high and growing, in the south, in the zone of risky agriculture, in the zone of difficult access to moisture, where there is the need for serious investments in land reclamation, they are lower. Today the average price in central Ukraine is $2,000-2,500, in the north – $1,700-2,200, and in Kherson region I’m not sure that someone will pay more than $1,000 per hectare without access to moisture,” he noted.
The expert said that he does not expect a rush to buy land in specific regions. According to him, the greatest demand for agricultural land will remain in the central, northern and western parts of Ukraine.
After the moratorium on the alienation of farmland is lifted on July 1, the parties to the transaction for the purchase of a land plot will need to pay 5% personal income tax and 1.5% military duty, taxes and fees will be calculated from the cost of the plot specified in the sale and purchase agreement, according to the Facebook page of the Ministry of Justice.
The ministry said that the military tax shall be paid even before the moment of notarization of the land alienation agreement.
The Ministry of Justice said that the basic calculated value for taxation of transactions for the purchase of land will be the price specified in the purchase and sale agreement, which cannot be lower than the assessed value of the land calculated by the authorized body.
According to the ministry, the legislative algorithm for taxation of land transactions also provides for a number of benefits.
“The owners of agricultural land plots and land shares received as a gratuitous transfer in accordance with Article 121 of the Land Code of Ukraine are exempted from taxation. Benefits, under certain conditions and only once a year, can also be used by persons who received such plots in the course of privatization,” the ministry said.
In connection with the launch of the land market in Ukraine, which will start working on July 1, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the Ministry of Justice and the State Tax Service will publish clarifications on a number of important issues related to the sale of land, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said.
“Next week, the land market will start working in Ukraine. From July 1, Ukrainians will be able to exercise their legal right and independently dispose of land plots. In this regard, this week I instructed the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the Ministry of Justice and the State Tax Service to issue clarifications on the launch of the land market, the work of notaries and maximally assist in resolving issues that Ukrainians may have,” Shmyhal wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
He noted that the government has also made changes to the procedure for maintaining the State Register of Rights to Real Estate, which will ensure the correct sale procedure and the correct disclosure of all information in the register.
AGRARIAN MINISTRY, JUSTICE MINISTRY, LAND MARKET, TAX SERVICE
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal instructed the relevant ministries and departments to issue clarifications regarding the launch of the land market.
“In less than a week, the land market will start operating in Ukraine. We held a preparatory meeting with representatives of ministries, the President’s Office, the NSDC secretary and members of the specialized committees of the Verkhovna Rada,” Shmyhal wrote in his Telegram channel.
The prime minister said that he instructed the relevant departments to pay special attention to the process of starting the reform.
“He also instructed the Ministry of Agrarian Ministry, the Ministry of Justice and the State Tax Service to issue clarifications regarding the land market, the work of notaries and to maximize the resolution of issues that Ukrainians may have,” he said.
