“Creating a financial product from agricultural land”, as the government proposes, “in a country like ours, it is dangerous and it is not suitable”, declared Wednesday the president of Safer, a land regulatory body.
The agricultural bill currently being discussed in the National Assembly provided for the creation of “agricultural land investment groups” (GFAI), supposed to make it easier for investors to acquire land to rent it to new farmers, then offloaded the need to finance the purchase.
But this provision was rejected in committee by the deputies.
A rewriting of the article could still be proposed, to the National Assembly or the Senate, but at this stage no reinstatement amendment is on the agenda for debate at the Palais Bourbon.
“Is there a need to raise large sums of money when the land market is generally quite stable? We answer no,” indicated Emmanuel Hyest, president of the federation of land development and rural settlement companies (Safer), during an annual review of rural land transactions.
In certain regions such as the north of France, “we do not have enough land to allocate to meet demand,” noted the official.
The price of renting land to farmers is regulated and the average return for a landowner is currently 2.83%, less than the Livret A.
To attract investors with purely financial objectives, land prices would have to increase, which can “only lead to speculation”, believes Mr. Hyest.
On the forest market, where forestry investment groups are authorized, the price of massifs of more than 25 hectares jumped by 10% in 2023, argues the manager.
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Overall, sales of agricultural land, forests and country houses stalled in 2023.
For land and meadows, the number of transactions fell by 1.5% while the price increase slowed (+1.5%). The average cost of an unrented hectare still rose to its highest level since 1997, at 6,200 euros.
For vines, the situation is “two speeds”, according to Loïc Jégouzo, from the Safer research department: the number of transactions has fallen significantly in vineyards in difficulty like Bordeaux, but a few exceptional sales have increased the value total operations of 16%.
Sales of country houses, for their part, fell by 24%.