282
Antonina Bobkova, Pavlo Liutikov, Oleksandr Bondar y Yuliia Krasnova
Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for
Ukraine and other Countries
In particular, Article 130 § 1 of the Land Code of Ukraine of 2001 prescribes
that, along with citizens of Ukraine, Ukrainian territorial communities and
the state of Ukraine itself, from January 1, 2024, Ukrainian legal entities,
created and registered under the legislation of Ukraine, participants
(shareholders, members) of which are only citizens of Ukraine and/or the
state of Ukraine and/or Ukrainian territorial communities may acquire
agricultural land. At the same time, foreign individuals and legal entities are
prohibited from acquiring shares or membership in legal entities (except
for the statutory capital of banks) that are owners of agricultural land.
This prohibition shall be lifted on the condition and from the date of
approval of the respective decision in an all-Ukrainian referendum, with
the exception of certain special restrictions related to agricultural land
plots located closer than 50 kilometers from the state border of Ukraine, or
land sales market operations by individuals and legal entities, in respect of
which the special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) were
imposed and some other special situations (Land Code of Ukraine, 2001:
Article 130).
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the legislative provisions of
Article 130 § 2 of the Land Code of Ukraine of 2001 determine that the total
area of agricultural land owned by a citizen of Ukraine cannot exceed 10,000
hectares. The total area of agricultural land owned by a legal entity (except
banks) may not exceed the total area of agricultural land owned by all its
participants (members, shareholders), but not more than 10,000 hectares.
Violation of these requirements is grounds for invalidating the deed by
which ownership of the land plot is obtained, as well as for conscation of
the land plot (Land Code of Ukraine, 2001: Article 130).
At the same time, according to Article 130 § 7 of the Land Code of Ukraine
of 2001, the sale of state and municipal agricultural land is prohibited (Land
Code of Ukraine, 2001: Article 130). At the same time, the opening of the
land sales market does not imply the cancellation of privatization of state
and municipal land. As the law prescribes:
Citizens of Ukraine shall have the right to free transfer of land plots from state-
owned or municipal lands in the following sizes: a) for farming enterprise, in the
size of land share, determined for members of agricultural enterprises located on
the territory of the village, settlement, city council, where the farm is located. If
there are several agricultural enterprises on the territory of a village, settlement
or city council, the size of the land share shall be determined as the average for
these enterprises. In the absence of agricultural enterprises on the territory of the
relevant council, the size of the land share shall be determined as the average for
the district; b) for individual farming, not more than 2.0 hectares; c) for gardening
– not more than 0.12 hectares; d) for the construction and maintenance of a
residential house, farm buildings and structures (homestead) in villages, not more
than 0.25 hectares; in settlements, not more than 0.15 hectares; in cities, not more
than 0.10 hectares; e) for individual country house construction, not more than