Estonia's land value up a third in four years to €44.1 billion
Estonia's total land value has grown 33 percent in four years, from €33.2 billion to €44.1 billion, according to the Land and Spatial Board's (Maa- ja Ruumiamet) regular valuation.
Harju County accounts for 57 percent of the total at €25.2 billion, far ahead of the next on the list, Tartu County at 11 percent, and Pärnu County at 7 percent. Values grew fastest in municipalities around Tallinn and Tartu.
The valuation gets carried out every four years and covers all of Estonia's roughly 780,000 cadastral units, using real estate transaction data and models based on location and land characteristics.
Commenting on the results, Marje Kolmar-Grüner, head of the land valuation department, said: "The biggest changes often appear in areas where previously unbuilt-on land has become a new living environment. For example, in Tartu near the former Raadi airfield, the assessed value of land has in some cases grown more than tenfold, and in Järveküla in Rae parish in Harju County, the assessed value has in some cases more than doubled."
Land value grew most rapidly among municipalities in the Tallinn and Tartu commuter belt, and of these it was Tartu Rural Municipality (as distinct from Tartu City Municipality to the south) which saw the most rapid growth, at an average of 59 percent.
Overall by county, growth was fastest in Rapla, Lääne and Võru counties, which were all above 40 percent, and was slowest in Ida-Viru County at 18 percent.
Nearly all cadastral units saw a land value rise — in 96 percent of cases, with the remaining 4 percent seeing unchanged or falling values.
While residential land is the most expensive in Harju County, it has not risen fastest there: values grew quickest at the other end of the country, in Võru County, at 55.9 percent, as well as in Järva County at 55.6 and Rapla County at 55.5. The slowest rise was seen in Ida-Viru County at 12.6 percent.
Forest land value rose across Estonia by between 46 percent in Harju County and 58.8 percent in Järva County, the fastest growth of any land type. The median price of unbuilt land roughly doubled in four years.
Residential land makes up about half of Estonia's total value at €22.2 billion, with commercial and industrial land coming to about 18 percent, at €8.1 billion.
Land values set in 2026 will be used to calculate land tax from 2028. Local governments decide the tax rate, for residential land between 0.1 and 1 percent. They also decide how much land tax may rise by in a year.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming
