In the border regions of our country, from Groningen to Limburg, it is increasingly common for Dutch agricultural land to be sold to German farmers. For example, estate agents in the east of the Netherlands inform De Gelderlander that they have already mediated in more than 100 hectares of agricultural land. Advocate LTO Nederland is anything but happy with this development.
German farmers have been showing increasing interest in Dutch agricultural land for the past 2 years. The reason? The average price for agricultural land is lower in the east of our country than in Germany. In Winterswijk, the average land price for a Dutch farmer is between €60.000 and €70.000 per hectare, while a German for the same piece of land is easily €70.000 to €80.000 per hectare. This is still a lot cheaper than land in Germany. There, a farmer easily pays €110.000 to €120.000 per hectare. The reason why the price is so high is because many biogas installations have been installed at companies in our neighboring country. They need long-term contracts for raw materials. This has a price-raising effect.
This development is not only taking place in the eastern border regions, more and more German farmers are also interested in Dutch agricultural land in the north and south of our country. "Although the situation is now taking on more extreme forms, you cannot call the situation completely strange. After all, farmers in a border region only have a semicircle around them. It is still attractive to look across the border," says Jo Aelmans from the real estate agency of the same name.
Worrying development
Advocacy group LTO Nederland sees it as a worrying development. Not only because this can lead to an increase in the price of land, but also because there is already so little land available. The organization is referring, among other things, to the fact that a lot of land has been converted into nature reserves over the past 10 to 20 years and that a lot of space is now being made for solar parks and Natura 2000 areas. The supply is therefore limited and the Germans are cherry-picking.
The fact that interest is now greater than a few months ago is, according to local real estate agents mainly because interest rates are now low. As a result, people prefer to own real estate than have money in the bank. This way they can still benefit from the gradual increase in value. This increase in value is expected to continue, because agricultural land in Germany is disappearing every day due to housing and road construction. "The fact that this does not apply in Belgium is because the land price there is much lower and it is therefore not financially attractive to purchase land in the Netherlands or Germany," says Aelmans.