Citizens of Ukraine are afraid that the land will be bought by foreigners, and this is one of the main reasons why two-thirds of voters in the “land referendum” will vote against the sale of land, which now embodies power, Director of the Rating sociological group Oleksiy Antypovych said.
During the roundtable conference titled “Ukrainians’ Attitude to Land Market” hosted by Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of the survey published the day before, which his company conducted at the end of April, the sociologist said that 77% of residents support the referendum against the sale of agricultural land and 75% intend to take part in it.
“We asked very clearly, how would you vote in a referendum on such a question: ‘Do you support the introduction of a market for the purchase or sale of agricultural land in Ukraine?’ We see that 36% would vote for the introduction of a land market, while 64% would vote against it. Two-thirds are against, a third are for,” Antypovych said.
According to him, Ukrainians are especially frightened by the intention to allow the purchase of Ukrainian land by foreign citizens and companies, some 79% of respondents are against this.
“The fear that the land will be bought by foreigners is one of the main factors causing great resistance or great disagreement by Ukrainians to the idea of selling land, and there is no difference between residents of the West or the East, or respondents from different age groups,” the sociologist said.
It is planned that the land market in Ukraine should start working as early as July 1, 2021.
The participants of the event said the amendments to the Land Code, recently adopted by the votes of a mono-majority, allowed the sale of Ukrainian land to foreigners, canceled the ban on the sale of especially valuable land and provided the preferential right to purchase land to persons who are going to be engaged in mining.
At the same time, the parliamentary faction of the Batkivschyna party of Yulia Tymoshenko, which was the only one in the Verkhovna Rada that did not give a single vote for any “land” law, is now organizing an all-Ukrainian referendum in defense of the land.
Tymoshenko’s team has already opened a special hotline and has appointed a meeting of the initiative group, which already has more than 12,000 people, for May 22.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal expects that the opening of a land market in the country will bring $85 billion of additional GDP in 10 years, and the average cost of land per 1 ha will increase fivefold.
“Ukraine has underutilized its land potential of $85 billion. In 29 years, free disposal of land has been limited, which means that its value has been underestimated several times. During this time, more than 5 million hectares of land have disappeared from the state. Development of irrigation and investment in agriculture has slowed down for decades, and partially stopped at all,” the prime minister said during the presentation of the Audit of the Ukrainian economy and vectors of economic development until 2030 in Kyiv on Friday.
According to the published document entitled “Audit of the Economy of Ukraine”, the fair value of Ukrainian land is currently $4,960 per hectare with a standard monetary value of $955 per hectare (2018).
At the same time, since the model of the land market adopted by the government has several fundamental restrictions (a ban on legal entities from buying land until 2024, a complete ban for foreigners, restrictions on the maximum areas to purchase), the price of land will not reach its fair value in the near future.
Thus, according to the land market model adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers, the price of one hectare is predicted to increase to $2,350 in the tenth year after the implementation of the reform.
Untapped potential of using water, forest resources in Ukraine is $12 bln, $40 bln respectively – PM.
The Verkhovna Rada at an extraordinary meeting has adopted a law on opening the land market from July 1, 2021 with the restriction of its operation in the first three years only to land plots owned by individuals with a maximum ownership of 100 hectares per capita. According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, 259 MPs voted for bill No. 2178-10 on farmland turnover at second reading and as a whole on Tuesday night with the quorum being 226 votes.
The votes for the law were distributed as follows: Servant of the People with 206 votes, European Solidarity with 23 votes, Holos with 13, Dovira with 12, non-affiliated with five votes. The factions of Opposition Platform-For Life, Batkivschyna, and For the Future group did not give a single vote in support.
The document stipulates that from January 1, 2024 legal entities will be able to purchase agricultural land, the concentration threshold per entity will increase to 10,000 ha. The sale of agricultural land of state and municipal property is prohibited.
In addition, banks get the opportunity to obtain land as recovery of collateral, however, such land plots should be sold at auction within two years.
According to the bill, the access of foreigners to the land market will depend on the results of the national referendum.
In addition, it is stipulated that until January 1, 2030 the selling price of agricultural land plots allocated to land plot holders cannot be less than their regulatory monetary value.
62% of Ukrainians against land market
KYIV. Feb 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Some 62% of Ukrainians are against the introduction of the agricultural land market in Ukraine, according to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on February 21-25, 2020.
If the All-Ukrainian referendum on the sale of agricultural land took place next Sunday, 15% of Ukrainians would vote in the referendum “in favor of” the land market, 62% – “against,” and another 18% would not vote.
According to the results of the study, during the period of November 2019 – February 2020, the share of supporters of land sales decreased: 22% in November, 19% in December, and 15% in February.
The survey was conducted using the CATI method (computer-assisted telephone interviews) using a random selection of mobile phone numbers. The sample is representative of the adult population (aged 18 years and older) of Ukraine. The sample does not include territories that are temporarily uncontrolled by the Ukrainian authorities. During the survey, 1,500 interviews were conducted, the sampling error with a probability of 0.95 does not exceed 3%. The data of this study are compared with the results of KIIS surveys, which were conducted from December 15 to December 18, from November 22 to November 25, from November 4 to November 7, from October 9 to October 11, and from September 6 to September 19, 2019.
