Land market has started to develop extremely in the Czech Republic since 2002. The annual sale and purchase of estates represented 0.2% of the total land resources between 1993-2001. The sale and the purchase represented 2.9% of total land resources after 2002 and especially after the EU accession of the Czech Republic. These values of sale are the highest from the EU countries. On the other side, land prices decreased slightly in comparison with the prices before the EU accession. Prices of agricultural land are significantly lower than in the EU-15.

In this study we attempt to understand the relationship between regional growth in population, employment, and per capita income, and farmland development in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. A spatial simultaneous equations model is estimated using county-level data. Results indicate that while county income growth and agricultural land value increases in neighboring counties increase the rate of farmland loss, growth in county agricultural land values, increases in agricultural land density in neighboring counties, and increases in agricultural

Bulgaria faced and still is facing many challenges in the accession process to the EU. Free movement of capital, and especially the development of the land market, is one of them. Although a progress has been made, land prices are still below the EU average prices. There are different reasons for this as, for example, very fragmented land after the restitution process, chaotic transactions, lack of bank credits for agricultural purposes, unrealistic expectations after the accession to the EU and others.

This paper analyses the enforcement of the 2003 CAP reform in 5 countries of the West European Union: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom. The reform gives multiple possibilities of adaptation at a national or regional level.

This paper deals with agricultural land in Bulgaria and some problems which could impede the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy and the assimilation of financial resources from the EU Structural Funds.

As long as the land market in Slovakia is not completely developed and land market prices introduced, the officially assigned land prices are practically in use. At the present time, land prices should express the supply prices, which cover the income effect of the land site under the socially necessary costs. Thus, centrally assigned fixed land prices could represent the effective prices in this transient period. Official prices are actually also used for fiscal purposes and to solve land property rights.

The aim of this study was to analyse the Hungarian land market and the changes that have occurred since the EU accession as well as to present the tendencies of the development. The demand in Hungary is primarily for outstanding and good quality land of favourable location in certain regions or large plots of arable and forest land. Scattered, wedged properties of small size or of unclear ownership (undivided common land) are difficult to sell.

The agricultural land market in Slovakia has noted an increased dynamics recently. This situation is the result of entering big foreign investors, particularly car factories which bought agricultural land for construction purposes. It resulted in the raised prices of plots. Agricultural land prices sold for further agricultural use are markedly lower from those in the EU-15. Such prices are the third lowest ones within the new EU member countries.

The purpose of this study is twofold. On one hand, the objective is to assess the impact of new and more complex contracting schemes, as opposed to traditional marketing channels, on small farmers’ welfare. On the other hand, the study explores which may be the critical factors that determine the small farmers’ participation in these institutional arrangements. In this context, two critical factors are stressed. The first one has to do with access to credit and the second one is the size of the agricultural plot.

This publication is a snapshot of the Minnesota Farm Real Estate Sales web site (http://www.apec.umn.edu/faculty/sjtaff/salesstudy) as of May 31, 2006. It will be formally "reissued" (the web site will be recaptured) each Spring, as new sales data become available. We no longer distribute a separate farm real estate report in the Minnesota Agricultural Economist (now the Minnesota Applied Economist.