Agricultural land prices significantly higher than official DZS data

The average price of a hectare of arable land last year in Pannonian Croatia was €6231, as recently published by the State Bureau of Statistics, which somewhat surprised us. Namely, more than two years ago when we wrote about agricultural land prices, the price of the highest quality land around Vukovar ranged between €10,000 and €12,000, while slightly further west in Slavonia it was between €6,000 and €8,000 per hectare. Thus, even then it was higher than what DZS reported last year.

However, DZS relied on data collected from administrative sources of the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance and based on the Survey on the Structure of Agricultural Holdings for its assessment of arable land values. The data exclusively refers to land used for agricultural purposes, excluding the values of buildings or inter-family transfers.

Still, Duško Grgur, the owner and director of the Osijek real estate agency German, was quite surprised when we conveyed the DZS data that the average price of arable land in the Pannonian area last year was €6231.

– That is a very good price – Grgur reacted to our words, wondering where that land is so he could go buy it immediately.

According to him, a hectare of the highest quality agricultural arable land costs between €15,000 and €16,000, but that is land around Vukovar and Baranja.

– However, somewhat lower prices are for smaller plots, those under 30 hectares, and there the price could be around €12,000, but it all depends on location and supply and demand. For example, I have a 20-hectare parcel for which the owner is asking €15,000 per hectare – says Grgur.

Possible price drop in Slavonia

He also adds that the mentioned average price of €6231 from DZS is not realistic, although we know that slightly west of Baranja, somewhat cheaper agricultural land can be found, specifically arable land. For instance, it can be purchased in Đakovo for €11,000 to €12,000, the same in Osijek, and even in the more western parts of Slavonia, the price is not low enough for DZS’s average to be accurate.

– I don’t know who and how much reports real estate transactions to the Tax Administration, which sends data to DZS, but I believe that the average price of €6,000 is unrealistic – says Grgur.

However, this does not mean that the price of these arable lands will not fall. Namely, Grgur states that in the last six months, transactions for these properties have significantly decreased, and the reason is climatic conditions because investments in irrigation and protection against increasingly frequent natural disasters are needed for our agricultural lands.

These additional investments may be the reason that today there is even agricultural land in Slavonia and Baranja, although most often smaller areas, which are being sold longer than expected. Therefore, Grgur is convinced that in that part of the country, there could even be a drop in arable land prices to €13,000, maybe even to €12,000, if the weak real estate transactions continue.

He also commented on the data regarding the average prices of meadows (€3082) and pastures (€4034) in Pannonian Croatia. These prices could already be more realistic, he says, as they are lower than arable land, and although there is livestock farming in Slavonia, sowing prevails, including sowing for livestock needs.

As for Adriatic Croatia, the average prices cited by DZS deviate even more from the real situation. Moreover, the deviations are drastic. Namely, according to DZS, last year the average price of arable land reached €6655 per hectare, the highest in the country. Meadows were priced at €2809, while pastures reached €4334 per hectare.

Demand is high, but not for investing in agriculture

As Slaven Zambata, the owner of the Zambata real estate agency, says, it is not even close to that. Indeed, the prices of state land being sold are around €10,000 per hectare, but he also mentioned the example of Benkovac and Zadar where land was sold for as low as €5,000 to enable investments. However, the prices of privately owned land are booming. They range up to €100,000 per hectare, and in the last five years, they have doubled.

Demand is high, but not for investing in agriculture, rather for establishing wind farms, or for tourism development where investors, respecting regulations regarding distance from the sea, build some villas and plant trees, for example, olive trees, and rent them out as a form of agricultural tourism.

In the interior of the islands, the price is similar, but it drastically increases if it is by the coast. For example, on the island of Hvar, along the coast, the price reaches €25 per square meter (if the area were one hectare, that would be €250,000).

– There is no production, everything is deserted. People used to engage in agriculture, but that no longer exists – says Zambata.

Prices are somewhat lower in the Dalmatian hinterland, he says, but there are no precise data. However, comparing house prices, for example, in Sinj, they are half as cheap as those in Split, and as such a trend follows the prices of agricultural land, he would not be surprised, he says, if those prices are also half as cheap, that is, €5,000 per hectare. And they might even be lower, as the situation in the hinterland is very poor, there are no people, no production, so land can be found for someone who wants to invest either in agriculture or in energy.

No large areas

That prices are somewhat lower in some parts of the country, such as Banija, Kordun, and Karlovac, is confirmed by Marin Vrnoga, the owner of Arka global real estate agency. There are no interested buyers, no one is buying anything, especially since much of the land in that area has overgrown with bushes, it is abandoned, so the price is around €5,000 per hectare. The question is whether it is even that much. However, even such land, if someone is interested, is sold at the price cited by DZS, so if those prices are in Banija and Kordun where there are no sales and where much of the land has overgrown with bushes, it only confirms that prices in Croatia are far higher than what official statistics show.

Daria Došen, director of the Gospić agency Zir – real estate, says that the price in Lika ranges from €0.50 to €2 per square meter (from €5,000 to €20,000 per hectare), but that it can sometimes be higher.

– I recently sold agricultural land for €4 per square meter, but close to the road and other infrastructure, and there is also a possibility that this land could be repurposed in the future – says Došen.

However, the problem is that in Lika, as well as in Banija and Kordun, there is not much large area land, and a lot of it is sought by livestock farmers, so the price reaches higher amounts than those stated in the official statistics. Of course, there are also those with lower prices, but those are smaller areas, some have overgrown with bushes or have access issues.

The price of agricultural land is similarly moving in northern Croatia. According to DZS, arable land has reached an average price of €4943. However, in a conversation with Sanjom Majnić from the Varaždin agency Queen Stela, we learn that prices range from €0.50 to €5 per square meter, which means €5,000 to even €50,000 per hectare.

– It all depends on the microlocation, what kind of access road there is, or if some agricultural land is right next to building land, so it can be used, for example, for parking. It is very difficult to estimate an average price because so many factors influence it – says Majnić.

Looking at the whole of Croatia, according to DZS, the average price of purchased arable land during 2024 was €5,965 per hectare. All in all, this data on average prices, as well as those by regions, judging by the statements of the interlocutors, are not realistic. However, none of them blame DZS because its data is based on the data from the Tax Administration, which calculates taxes based on reported amounts in purchase agreements. And those amounts are regularly lower than the actual prices paid for agricultural land.