Rada drafts another land law limiting foreigners ability to buy

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, published a
new draft law on farmland reform on Oct. 11 that diverges from liberal reforms
presented in the Cabinet draft in late September.
The new draft keeps the farmland market launch for October 2020. However, it
imposes stricter limits on land bank ownership by a single entity at no more
than 35% of the land of the local community (with no limits in the Cabinet’s
draft), no more than 8% of a region’s total farmland (15%) and no more than 0.5%
of Ukraine’s total farmland (0.5%). On top of that, the latest draft delays the
ability of firms with non-residents as beneficiary owners to purchase farmland
until Jan. 1, 2024. Exceptions will be granted to companies that have been
registered for three years and are leasing land plots at the time of the
market’s launch.

Alexander Paraschiy: The latest bill has more chances to be approved by the parliament as
it better reflects the position expressed by President Zelensky on Oct. 10. That is, for certain time, foreigners won’t be
able to buy land, while those foreign interests already present here could have
some more rights. While this is a significant step away from liberal land
reform, this looks like a comfortable (but not necessary) compromise. If the
bill is approved in the current draft, foreigners interested in purchasing
Ukrainian farmland still will have a loophole to participate, in our view.