Regulations Regarding Land Ownership in Romania
On January 1st 2014, the Romanian land market opens for foreigners. A draft law approved by the Government allows the EU citizens to buy farmland in Romania.
Bogdan Matei, 21.11.2013, 14:38
Years on end, Romanians boasted about a conclusion drawn by specialists in the field, saying that, after France, Romania had the biggest agricultural potential in the whole of Europe. Unfortunately, for 25 years now this potential has not been capitalized on. The fall of Communism in 1989 led to the dismantling of agricultural cooperatives and drove state-owned agricultural companies into bankruptcy. Land was returned to former owners, though to many of them that was more of a burden than a privilege.
In the 1950s, thousands of Romanian farmers had gone to prison because of their refusal to give their land to cooperatives. Riots broke out in dozens of villages, which were brutally repressed by the Soviet-inspired regime in Romania. After 1990, in the old and depopulated villages land was abandoned, and the aforementioned agricultural potential became just an insignificant contribution to the GDP.
Today, from tomatoes to beef, almost everything that Romanians eat comes mainly from abroad. In the past years, due to the real estate crisis, nobody has been interested in buying land either. No matter how frustrating an injection of capital, foreign technology and know-how may be for Romanians to whom patriotism still means something, this is the only chance for domestic agriculture to come back to life.
On Wednesday, the Romanian Government approved a draft law allowing EU citizens to buy land in Romania, without having to set up a company as the previous law stipulated. If the law is passed by Parliament as well, starting next year the land market will be liberalized. The Romanian Minister of Agriculture Daniel Constantin says the measure is aimed at amassing land, setting up exploitations that are economically viable and ensuring food safety.
Daniel Constantin: “ It was the right time to come up with that law, whose aim is not to impose restrictions, but to create the necessary conditions regarding the sale and purchase of farmland in Romania, as this is extremely important for the future of Romanian agriculture.”
Under the new law, upon receiving an offer from a foreign citizen, the seller shall submit an application to the town hall, requesting that those who have the right of preemption be notified and the sale offer be posted publicly. If within 30 days since the notification nobody is interested, the land can be sold to the foreign citizen.”
