Investors’ impact on Czech farmland prices: a microstructural analysis

Abstract

Abstract This paper analyses farmland price formation under investors’ increased demand in the Czech Republic from 2008 to 2014. We adopt a stochastic metafrontier approach to hedonic price modelling and investigate the relative differences in farm and investor pricing. Our results provide evidence of buyer group-specific land valuations, asymmetric price dispersions and their temporal changes. These changes reflect the developments of market microstructures and market-supporting institutions induced by buyer competition. While initially significantly lower due to high market and bargaining power, prices paid by corporate/cooperative farms converged with high-level investor prices over time. Individual and family farms were largely unable to compete at the new price levels.