Agricultural and Forestry Accounts and Prices Department

Zornitsa Ivanova

Angelina Malamova

Head of Department

State Expert

2, P.Volov Str., 1527 Sofia, Bulgaria

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The data are compiled in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics on agricultural input and output, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379, and the Handbook on Agricultural Land Prices and Rents.

From 2010 to 2024 inclusive, data on agricultural land prices have been collected through a survey covering three main groups of respondents operating on the agricultural land market:

•       Agricultural holdings,buying agricultural land for development of their economic activity (NACE code 01)
•       Land transactions companies established according to the National legislation specially to carry out operations (purchase, sale and rental) of agricultural land (NACE code 6810 and 6820)
•       Real estate agencies (limited number) buying and selling agricultural land (NACE code 6831). Only those agricultural land transactions where its purpose for agricultural production is not changed are taken into account.

As of 2025, the respondent survey has been discontinued, and data on the area and the price per unit area of sold/purchased agricultural land are obtained from administrative sources – the Registry Agency and the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency.

For data compilation next classifications are used:

• Classification of Territorial units for Statistics in Bulgaria (NUTS)
• Classification of observed Land use categories
• Classification of Economic Activities in Bulgaria (NACE 2025, Rev. 2)
• National Register of Populated places in Bulgaria

The prices of transactions with agricultural land on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria for a given calendar year.

1. The average prices of agricultural land are calculated on the basis of the final transaction purchase prices, which as of 2025 are collected from an administrative data source. Definition of the price of agricultural land According to the market price concept, the price of agricultural land (arable land, permanent grassland) is the price received/paid by the holder in free trade without deduction of taxes or levies and without the inclusion of subsidies. In practice, this means the actual price agreed upon by the transactors. Any taxes that the seller may have to subsequently pay as a result of selling the land, such as capital gains tax, would not be deducted from the price. The selling/purchase price of land should thus exclude:

• costs of transferring ownership (therefore lawyer's fees, registration taxes and real estate tax are not included in the land price);
• deductible VAT;
• the entitlements related to the land;
• the value of any monetary compensation received by farmers for the sale/acquisition of the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA);
• the value of any building on the sold/purchased agricultural land;
• inheritance transfers.

2. Observed land use categories

• Arable land - land worked (ploughed or tilled) regularly, generally under a system of crop rotation (as defined for the latest Farm Structure Survey).
• Permanent grassland - land used permanently (for five years or more) to grow herbaceous forage crops, through cultivation (sown) or naturally (self-seeded) and which is not included in crop rotation.

A transaction involving agricultural land, registered in the information system of the Registry Agency, for which data on the agreed price and the area of the property are available.

It includes all registered transactions with agricultural land in the territory of the country during the respective reference year for which valid data on price and area are available. In defining the population, transactions that do not reflect market conditions (e.g. donations, exchanges, transactions without a stated price or with incomplete data, transactions between related parties) are excluded.

The geographical coverage of the survey includes the entire territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. The data are based on all registered transactions with agricultural land recorded in the information system of the Registry Agency, regardless of the location of the property.

The statistical results are published:

•      at national level;
•      by statistical regions (NUTS level 2 and level 3 in accordance with the Classification of Territorial Units for Statistics);
•      by districts.

Where applicable, the data may also be presented by municipalities, subject to compliance with statistical confidentiality requirements.

The data from 2010 onwards 

Not applicable.

Euro per 1 decar sold agricultural land

In order to meet the requirements of the Eurostat Common Methodology, prices are then recalculated per hectare.

Calendar year.

•       Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 on SAIO adopted on 23.11.2022, in force from 1 January 2025;
•       Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1579 of 31 July 2023 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on agricultural prices.
•       National Law on Statistics;
•       National Statistical Programme

Not applicable

•      Law on Statistics: https://nsi.bg/en/documents/detail/1;
•      Regulation (EC) 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20 (4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p 164) foresee that for that purpose it is necessary to establish common principles and guidelines, ensuring data confidentiality of data used for production of European Statistics and access to those confidential data with account for technical developments and requirements of users in democratic society.

http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:087:0164:0173:EN:PDF

Individual data shall not be published, observing art. 25 of the Law on Statistics. The dissemination of individual data is made only under Art. 26 of the Law on Statistics.

Problems with the confidentiality of data arise at lower geographic levels and for smaller categories of land, where in some cases there are separate transactions or renting of agricultural land. In this case, the data is aggregated at the higher geographic level.

The schedule for dissemination of statistical information from the survey on agricultural land prices and rents is published in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the NSI.

The calendar is available on the NSI website:  https://nsi.bg/en/calendar

Data are published in compliance with the Chapter 5 of the Law on Statistics and European Statistics Code of Practice, considering professional independence and with aim of impartiality and transparency, where all users are treated equal.

Annual.

The press releases are published regularly on the NSI website in the year following the reference period in Bulgarian and English, together with the dissemination of the data.

The press release can be accessed at  https://nsi.bg/en/press-release/prices-of-agricultural-land-and-rents-8189

The data are published regularly on the NSI website in the year following the observation period in Bulgarian and English in the domain Statistical data/Agriculture and Forestry/Agriculture.

Data are available in IS INFOSTAT and acces was given through the NSI website:  https://infostat.nsi.bg/infostat/pages/external/login.jsf

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

• Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 on SAIO adopted on 23.11.2022, in force from 1 January 2025;
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1579 of 31 July 2023 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on agricultural prices.
• Agricultural land prices and rents statistics handbook

Quality report is not available.

All data are checked for completeness and compliance with the relevant statistical concepts and definitions.

The quality of the price data is monitored regularly in accordance with the framework set out in the Handbook on Agricultural Land Prices and Rents and in line with the quality definition of the European Statistical System.

The main user of data is the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Data are also provided to the business and to citizens.

No information available

All required data sets, including data at regional level are reported to Eurostat. 

Overall accuracy is not assessed.

Compliance with the accuracy of the source data is ensured through the evaluation of the methodological reliability of the price data sources and adherence to the methodological requirements.

Not applicable.

As of 2025, the average prices of agricultural land are calculated on the basis of data obtained from an administrative data source that covers all market transactions.

Non-sampling errors are not quantified. The National Statistical Institute makes efforts to reduce non-sampling errors by continuously improving the methodology and data validation methods.

Data from the Survey on agricultural land prices and rents in agriculture are published according to the Release Calendar of the results of NSI statistical surveys. Data were first published on 24.04.2017.

No delays have been made with regard to deadlines for sending Eurostat data and to timetable in the Release Calendar of the results of statistical surveys conducted by the NSI.

The data are geographically comparable for the entire period for which they are available.

Since the initial calculation of the average prices of agricultural land until the present, the methodology has been continuously developed and improved; therefore, a break in the time series is present as of 2025.

• The data source for the period 2010–2024 is an annual survey with respondents, which collects information on the number of transactions with agricultural land, the area of agricultural land sold/purchased, and the price per unit area.
• As of 2025, administrative data on concluded transactions from the Registry Agency are used. Data on the type of land sold/purchased are obtained from the Geodesy and Cadastre Agency.

Not observed

The internal coherence of data is ensured by using the same definitions, classifications, and methods of observation.

The budget (financial resources) needed for the implementation of survey is published in the National Statistical Program on the NSI website.

According to the established policy, data revisions are made when the methodology, the classifications and definitions used are changed.

Regular revisions are carried out when the latest data from the Farm Structure Survey are available. The Farm Structure Surveys are carried out over a certain period of time (usually three years). Land data are used as weights for weighing agricultural land prices and rents. The average prices are recalculated  when the latest data are available.

As of 2025, the data sources used for the calculation of the average prices of agricultural land are the Property Register, maintained by the Registry Agency, in combination with data from the Cadastre Information System (maintained by the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency).

Until the end of 2024, the data source was the annual survey “Survey on the Market Prices of Agricultural Land and Rents in Agriculture in Bulgaria.”

Annual.

From 2025 onwards, agricultural land prices are collected together with data from the Property Register, supplemented with information from the Cadastre.

Data from the Property Register are collected monthly through a web application that provides an automated secure connection between the NSI and the Registry Agency.

Records from the Property Register provide information on the transaction value and also include:

•      the registration date,
•      the role of the parties (individuals or legal entities),
•      the type of registration deed,
•      the total material interest in the transaction,
•      the registration fee,
•      a description of real estate, including: type of property, area in square meters, cadastral number.

Cadastral data are available online and publicly accessible.

The records contain information on:

•      type of property;
•      type of property ownership (private, state, municipal, etc.);
•      area in square meters;
•      type of territory (urban, agricultural, forest, etc.);
•      land use.

Data from the Property Register and the Cadastre are merged, with the cadastral number of each property used as the key variable.

Until 2024, data collection was offline, using an electronic questionnaire in Excel format with logical controls, which was sent to respondents by email.

The checks include rules for the automatic verification of land prices and areas. Price limits (minimum and maximum levels) are defined, calculated based on the prices from the previous year. Automatic control is performed, which involves identifying:

•      extreme values of prices,
•      extreme values of the land area involved in the transaction, using as a reference the areas by settlements from the most recent census.

Extreme values are flagged, and the corresponding records are removed.

The R programming language was used for data processing and analysis. The process includes the verification and creation of a national database, as well as data tabulation (automatic generation of tables containing aggregated data with weighted average prices across the observed categories of agricultural land and geographic levels).

The aggregation of data at national level is in accordance with the Common methodology for agricultural land prices and rents in agriculture. At the territorial level "municipality" (LAU2) the average price of transactions for the respective category of agricultural land is calculated as an arithmetic mean.

At NUTS3 level (district), NUTS2 level (statistical region), NUTS1 level (statistical zone) and NUTS0 (national level) the average price for the respective land use category was calculated as average weighted value. For the land transactions as weight  the area of arable land and of permanents grassland were used. The size of areas (weights) are regularly updated once the data from the last Farm Structure Survey were released. 

Not applicable.

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