Selling and rental prices of agricultural land

The aim of the statistical activity is to provide input for assessing the impact of direct payments to farmers under the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) on the selling and rental prices of agricultural land. The information on agricultural land prices is also used, if necessary, for the compilation of economic accounts for agriculture.

Administrative data process

The output indicators published in Statistics Estonia's database are the rental cost of agricultural land and the price of agricultural land, including separately the price of arable land and the price of permanent grassland (by county). The same indicators are also submitted to Eurostat. No distinction is made between the irrigated and non-irrigated areas as regards the price of land in Estonia since the share of irrigation is very small.

Classification of Use of Agricultural Land

Agriculture

Arable land – land worked regularly, generally under a system of crop rotation

Average rent per hectare of agricultural land – all rent expenses per hectare of utilised agricultural area paid by lessee in a calendar year

Average sale price per hectare of agricultural land – average price per hectare of utilised agricultural area sold in a calendar year

Permanent grassland – land used to grow grass and other herbaceous crops, through cultivation (sown) or naturally (self-seeded) and which is not included in the crop rotation for more than five years. Species suitable for grazing should be included, provided that grass and other herbaceous crops remain dominating.

Utilised agricultural area – area utilised by agricultural holdings for agricultural production or maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition (incl. arable land, permanent grassland, fruit and berry plantations, nurseries and kitchen gardens).

Sale transaction;

rent transaction

Transactions in selling and renting agricultural area

Estonia as a whole

2009–…

Not applicable

Price – euro

Year

Official Statistics Act.

Since 2025, statistics on the selling and rental prices of agricultural land are produced in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules for the application of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1579 as regards agricultural price statistics.

None

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35 and § 38 of the Official Statistics Act.

On European level, Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164) stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

The dissemination of data collected for the production of official statistics is based on the requirements laid down in §§ 34 and 35 of the Official Statistics Act. The principles for treatment of confidential data can be found here.

Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month).

The release calendar is available to consumers on the website Calendar.

All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar.

Year

News releases in the field of agriculture can be read on Statistics Estonia's website in the section Agriculture news.

The production of news releases is decided on a rolling basis.

Not published

Data are published in the statistical database under the subject area Economy/Agriculture / Economic accounts for agriculture in the table PM59: Utilised agricultural land prices and rents per hectare by county.

The database tables related to the survey were viewed 2,245 times in 2024, 1,988 times in 2023, 4,958 times in 2022, 3,138 times in 2021, 1,217 times in 2020, 1,084 times in 2019 and 789 times in 2018.
Each table view is counted as a separate viewing. This is based on the database URLs, which show that the data have been selected and the table formed.

The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act.
Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes.

If necessary data serve as input for statistical activity 21207 “Economic accounts for agriculture”.

Selling prices of agricultural land are transmitted to Eurostat by the end of September of the year following the reference year, and rental prices of agricultural land by the end of December of the year following the reference year. The data are transferred to Eurostat via the EDAMIS web portal.

A quality report is compiled and submitted to Eurostat every five years.

The metadata related to the statistical activity were viewed 276 times (1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024). This figure does not represent the number of viewers, as the metadata may have been viewed multiple times by a single user.

The statistical activity is guided by Eurostat's handbook Statistics on agricultural land prices and rents.

This statistical activity is guided by the European Statistics Code of Practice – revised edition, 2017.

Pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council, a report is prepared describing the methodology applied and the quality achieved. A summary of the quality report is published with the data on the Eurostat website Land prices and rents. The quality report covers the survey as a whole and is prepared according to the latest valid standard.

To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the EFQM Excellence Model and the requirements in section 7 “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act.

Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process; this information can take many forms, including feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions.

Quality is managed by the quality manager.

The survey data are used to assess the impact of direct payments to farmers under the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) on the selling and rental prices of agricultural land.

The main representative of public national interest is the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture.

Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys. Surveys conducted at least once a year target both the existing and potential consumers of statistics. All results are available on Statistics Estonia's website in the section User surveys. The survey referred to does not concern a specific statistical activity but is a general satisfaction survey.

The data comply with the guidelines set out in the handbook "Statistics on agricultural land prices and rents".

Not applied

The type of survey and the data collection methods ensure sufficient accuracy.

Not applicable as this is not a sample survey.

Not applicable as this is not a sample survey.

Not applied

Not applied

Not applicable as administrative data are used.

Not applicable as administrative data are used.

None

Not applied

The data are published as soon as possible after they are received from the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge and the Land and Spatial Development Board.

The data are published around the end of April and November of the following year, i.e. T + 120 days and T + 334 days.

The data are published once, around the end of April and November of the following year, i.e. T + 120 days and T + 334 days.

The data are published once, around the end of April and November of the following year, i.e. T + 120 days and T + 334 days.

The data have been published at the time announced in the release calendar.

Since 2009, the data have always been published at the time announced in the release calendar, with 100% timeliness.

The data are comparable with the data of other Member States of the European Union because a harmonised methodology is used.
Data on Estonia are comparable across counties.

Since 2020, selling prices have been published in co-operation with the Land and Spatial Development Board by processing the data of the Land and Spatial Development Board and ARIB. Therefore, the data might not be comparable with the data of previous periods.

For rental prices, other sources have also been used in the past, but this should not affect comparability.

Not applied

The data are closely linked to other statistics in the field of agriculture, i.e. the same concepts and definitions are used as in other agricultural statistics (e.g. crop farming).

Not applicable as data are not published for periods shorter than one year.

Not applicable as not directly usable in national accounts.

The data are internally coherent. The internal consistency of the data is ensured by the use of a common methodology for data collection and data aggregation.

Since this statistical activity is based on data from administrative sources, there is no data submission and therefore no burden.
Costs are not calculated separately for different statistical activities.

The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described on Statistics Estonia's website in the section Principles of dissemination of official statistics.

The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available.

Not applied

This is an activity based on administrative data. For rental prices of agricultural land, the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN) of the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge is used as input. For selling prices of agricultural land, the data on sales of agricultural land from the Land and Spatial Development Board are used as input.

Year

The data are received in aggregated form by email.

Arithmetic and qualitative checks are used in the validation process, including comparison with data from previous periods.

In 2009–2012, only the transactions with agricultural land that were made by legal persons whose main economic activity is agriculture were registered.
In 2013–2019, data on sale transactions and in 2014–2018 also rent transactions were published on the basis of administrative data (data of the Agricultural Registers and Information Board (ARIB), the Land and Spatial Development Board, the Centre of Registers and Information Systems, and the Estonian Tax and Customs Board were processed).
Since 2019, land rents have been published on the basis of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge.
Since 2020, selling prices have been published in co-operation with the Land and Spatial Development Board by processing the data of the Land and Spatial Development Board and ARIB.

When processing the Land and Spatial Development Board data, a transaction has been excluded in the following cases:
- according to ARIB, the share of land use is less than 90% of the respective land use type;
- the transaction object is not designated 100% as profit yielding land;
- the transaction object is built up;
- the type of the transaction object is not immovable property;
- the transaction type is not sale-purchase;
- one transaction party is the state or local government, excl. state and local government auctions;
- the number of immovables is more than one;
- at the time of transaction, the transferred immovable was encumbered with building rights or usufruct;
- it is a block transaction – several transaction objects are sold under the same notarial contract;
- the parties to the transaction are connected (business or family relations, etc.);
- there is some other known circumstance that indicates that the transaction did not take place in free market conditions;
- the area of the transaction object is less than two hectares;
- it is a repeat transaction; of the repeated transactions made on the same day, the transaction with the lowest price is excluded;
- the unit price of the transaction does not correspond to the threshold prices.

Data values are not imputed.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

None