Pacht: 'The shore will turn the ship'

What rises too high can only fall. The annual increase in rent standards has come to an end. However, keep in mind that the 2017 lease standards will only take effect from the lease price year following 1 July 2017. That is usually only from the 2018 cultivation year.

Most tenants will pay an even higher rent this year based on the previous rent standards from 2016. This can only be remedied if the rent is more than 2 percent of the land price.

That limit of 2 percent is, incidentally, due to the land price increase this century, quite outdated. So it may be time to reconsider. That 2 percent dates back to the 90s. At that time, the interest was still between 7 and 8 percent. In addition, no tenant will have acquired his property for free value. He or she is entitled to a return on the leased value of the land.

Based on land reward
The 2017 lease standards are based on the land remuneration from 2011 to 2015. Of these, 2011 and 2014 (and the southwestern arable area in 2013 and locally 2015) were bad years for arable farming. In the already troubled dairy farming, the tenants are once again getting a breath of fresh air. So it's a matter of persistence. 

In the knowledge that 2015 has also been a bad income year for dairy farmers (in addition to 2016), the decline in the rent in the livestock farming areas will continue next year. The lessors have achieved high returns to date. On the one hand, an ever-increasing rent and, on the other, a strong increase in the value of their property.

There is no better investment than leased land, with a stable value and with a low risk. I only hear complaints from private landlords and they mainly concern the capital yield tax.

No decision from Van Dam
The State Secretary has indicated to the BLHB that he does not want to make a decision about the price development of regular and liberalized leases. He awaits the advice of the mediator, Mr Heldoorn. The BLHB has proposed to the mediator to have the principles of the current lease price system (re)assessed by experts. 

We expect to hear the mediator's findings before the summer. Meanwhile, the State Secretary is on a collision course in his battle over phosphate rights with dairy farming. Here too, the shore will turn the ship. 

Peter van der Eijk

Piet van der Eijk was the chairman of the Association of Land Tenants and Own Land Users (BLHB) from 2012 to the beginning of 2019. He also has an arable farm in the Biesbosch polder in the outskirts of the Eiland van Dordrecht.

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