Farm land prices up

In the province of Flevoland in particular, prices of unleased agricultural land have risen extraordinarily strongly in the last ten years. In 1990 one hectare of polder land cost just over 18,000 euro. The figures for 2000 show that farmers paid nearly 47000 euro per hectare, an average increase of more than 10% a year. Prices rose nearly just as strongly in the provinces Drenthe, Noord-Holland and Groningen.

For the amount farmers had to pay for one hectare of land in these four provinces last year, they could have bought and average 2.5 hectares ten years ago. In 2000, the only provinces where a hectare of land cost less than 27,000 euro in 2000 were Groningen and Drenthe. In the other provinces the average prices was between 32,000 and 45,000 euro.

Farm land prices

The high prices in Flevoland are partly caused by the spatial and large-scale nature of agriculture in this province. In addition the land division in Flevoland and the quality of the soil also contribute to costly land. However, there are hardly any farming activities that yield a profit that exceeds the interest that has to be paid on a loan of 47,000 euro.

Cor Pierik