TASAGRONOMOS.COM consultants -specialized in agricultural and rural valuation- have analysed Land Property Prices Survey for year 2012 published by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture.

Land property prices have continuously decreased due to economic recession, which begun in 2008; thus, general index shows a decrease of 3% in nominal terms and 3.2% in real terms compared with the previous year.

A more detailed analysis by Autonomous Communities and crop types provides the following conclusions:

AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES

• Sharp fall in prices in Andalusia due to upward price adjustments in the last decade and the special economic situation in Andalusia.
• Murcia, Madrid and Cantabria experienced also price falls although with little impact on the global value due to their small agricultural area compared with other communities. No chance for future reclassifications of rural properties made the prices of these lands decrease in these three communities with a strong urban growth in the last decade.

CROPS

• A remarkable decrease in irrigated lands, although dry lands remain almost stable. There are even price increases in dry lands in some communities like Castile-Leon (2.4%) and Castile-La Mancha (3.4%)
• A strong decrease in the use of olive groves in dry lands because of the fall in the olive and olive oil prices.

In view of the above, we think that investing in rural properties is a good opportunity for the following reasons:

• Low return on investments although safe and guaranteed.
• Stability or slight rises in rural property prices in the following years.
• Spanish exportations in the agri-food sector have increased by 3% in year 2012.
• Stability in producer prices (cereals, legumes, protein crops, etc.) in recent years.

If you would like to obtain more information or the market value of a rural property, visit TASAGRONOMOS.com/tasacion/tasacion.php

Gonzalo Brezmes
Rural Surveyor
gonzalo@tasagronomos.com