Looking for GFA shares for sale in France? This page brings together the share transfers currently offered by outgoing partners, by families reorganising a land holding, by rural agencies and by notaries: stakes in a family groupement foncier agricole, units in a mutual GFA open to private savers, shares in an operating company, and minority blocks. Each listing states the legal form of the company, the area owned, how the land is farmed, whether a long-term lease is in place, the proportion of the capital on offer and the approval rules that apply to an incoming partner. It complements all the farms for sale in France on ma-propriete.fr.
Beyond the listings, this page gives the benchmarks buyers and sellers usually lack: farmland prices region by region, since they carry the value of the land held, the areas where such transfers arise, the legal and tax points specific to shares, and the steps of a transaction that completes. If you are planning to set up or take over a holding, our white paper « Créer une exploitation agricole » (in French) takes up the questions raised by a first acquisition.
The value of a share depends first on the land behind it. A groupement foncier agricole holds arable land and pasture, almost always let on a long-term lease: the regional price of farmland is therefore the basis of any valuation, before the rent received, the debt and a liquidity discount are taken into account. In an operating company, owned land plays the same part on the balance sheet.
Across France, 14,328 sales of agricultural land were recorded in 2025, at a median price of €5,307/ha (average €6,059/ha; 80% of transactions between €2,500 and €10,537/ha). The SAFER benchmark of land values puts vacant land and pasture at €6,460/ha (+0.9% year on year) and tenanted land at €5,350/ha (+2.5%), an average discount of around 17% where a tenant farmer is in place.
| Region | Sales 2025 (DVF) | DVF median price (€/ha) | SAFER vacant land (€/ha) | 1-year change | SAFER tenanted land (€/ha) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brittany | 1,297 | 5,500 | 6,540 | +0.3% | 5,180 |
| Pays de la Loire | 1,873 | 3,267 | 4,100 | +1.5% | 3,350 |
| Normandy | 1,442 | 8,305 | 9,610 | +2.9% | 8,410 |
| Hauts-de-France | 1,365 | 7,976 | 10,890 | -0.5% | 7,650 |
| Grand Est | 1,233 | 5,611 | 6,510 | -4.4% | 6,120 |
| Île-de-France | 214 | 7,465 | 8,190 | +5.7% | 7,000 |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 1,195 | 5,480 | 6,260 | -6.1% | 5,700 |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 1,303 | 2,773 | 2,740 | -6.2% | 2,750 |
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 2,103 | 4,538 | 5,770 | +5.5% | 3,900 |
| Occitanie | 995 | 7,015 | 7,260 | -0.3% | n/a |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 1,230 | 3,887 | 5,100 | +4.9% | 4,140 |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur* | 59 | 13,518 | 12,260 | +2.8% | n/a |
| Corsica* | 19 | 5,012 | — | — | n/a |
For shares, the table reads differently than for a farm: what matters is the gap between vacant and tenanted land, because the land held by a GFA is nearly always let to the farmer working it. The regions where land is dear are also those where this structure makes most sense. Beyond the hectares, the value of a share rests on the quality of the tenant, the remaining term of the leases and how consolidated the parcels are. From one region to the next, the benchmark varies fourfold, from €2,740/ha in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to €10,890/ha in Hauts-de-France. See the full analysis, department by department, on our agricultural land price observatory, estimate your plots with the land value tool, and work out notary fees and borrowing capacity with our financial calculators. * Fewer than 100 recorded sales: indicative value. n/a: no tenanted-land benchmark published for this region.
A groupement foncier agricole, or farmland group, is a civil company whose only purpose is to own land and let it out. A family GFA gathers heirs around inherited land and avoids undivided ownership; a mutual GFA, usually run by a manager, opens its capital to savers looking for a tangible asset and works much like a farmland investment fund. In both cases the partner grows nothing: he receives the rent paid by the tenant farmer under the long-term lease, carries the landlord's costs and holds, through his shares, the value of the land itself.
Buying agricultural company shares in a GAEC, an EARL or a SCEA follows another logic: you take over a business, so an asset and a liability. Livestock, machinery, stocks, current leases, loans, guarantees and contracts all follow the shares. The accounts, the notes and the off-balance-sheet commitments must be analysed before any offer, and a liability warranty protects the buyer against debts that come to light after completion.
Farmland group shares mostly come up where land is expensive and where buying every hectare outright is beyond a single farmer: the arable plains of Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Grand Est and Centre-Val de Loire, and the land of Normandy and Bourgogne. The structure lets family members, neighbours or investors hold together a land base that the farm business could not carry on its own. The wine-growing version of this arrangement, the groupement foncier viticole, follows valuation rules of its own and belongs to our vineyard category.
Transfers also follow family history: a GFA created on a succession sees its shares move from one generation to the next, through departures and settlements. Shares in operating companies follow the life of the farm instead: a young partner joining, a co-manager retiring, a GAEC reorganising, in livestock regions as much as in the large arable basins.
Farmland group shares are judged on their tax treatment as much as on their yield. Subject to conditions on the long-term lease, the holding period and an undertaking to keep the shares, they can qualify for partial relief from the French wealth tax on property and for a partial allowance on gift and inheritance duties, capped and reduced above a certain value. Giving the bare ownership of the shares while the parent keeps the usufruct remains the most common way of passing them on. Every situation should be checked with a notary or a tax adviser.
The trade-off is liquidity: shares do not sell like a listed security, and the articles almost always contain an approval clause that makes any new partner subject to a vote of the others. On top of that, the control of share transfers in farming companies requires prior authorisation where the operation gives control of an area above the threshold set in the department, together with notification to SAFER, the rural land agency, and where applicable its approval.
Handing over a farm run as a company does not always mean selling land and buildings. The seller may sell the assets, or transfer his shares: the buyer then takes the company as it stands, with its liabilities, its leases and its commitments, which changes the tax treatment of the sale, the warranties requested and the headline price. Our article selling the assets or the shares of a farming company compares the two routes, while sole trader or farming company: how to choose sets out which status to adopt before a takeover.
For the buyer, purchasing shares follows a set order: analyse the accounts and the leases, have the land valued, negotiate the liability warranty, obtain the partners' approval, then the administrative authorisations. The article on the control of share transfers in farming companies sets out the procedure and the operations concerned. A saver who does not farm will find in can you buy farmland without being a farmer the conditions under which buying land or shares remains open. Passing shares on within the family, by successive gifts, takes the same route.
The price of a share follows the value of the group: land valued at the regional farmland price, less debt, divided by the number of shares, then adjusted by a discount reflecting the absence of an organised market and the leases in place. A mutual GFA publishes a share value calculated periodically by its manager; a family GFA is negotiated privately, usually on the basis of a land valuation by a rural surveyor.
Yes. There is no nationality restriction on holding shares in a French farmland group, and a partner in a GFA is a landlord rather than a farmer, so no agricultural qualification is required. The position differs in an operating company, where a partner who works on the farm comes under the agricultural regime and the structures control may apply. In every case, joining remains subject to the approval clause in the articles.
Yes, on several grounds. The transfer of shares in a company owning farmland is notified to SAFER, which may pre-empt in the cases set out by law, in particular where the whole of the share capital is sold, and which examines authorisation requests under the control of share transfers. Allow for these periods in the timetable and make them a condition precedent in the preliminary contract.
Farmland group shares represent let land: the risk lies in the value of the land and in the reliability of the rent. Shares in a GAEC, an EARL or a SCEA represent a working business, with its livestock, machinery, loans and results. The due diligence involved and the warranties to negotiate are of a different order altogether.
By informing the management, which applies the approval clause and, often, a right of first refusal for the existing partners. If no internal buyer comes forward, the share is offered to an outsider on terms approved by the partners as a body. Expect a longer timetable than for a conventional property sale, and a discount where the stake on offer stays a minority one.
The GFA and farming company shares listed on ma-propriete.fr come from private partners, group managers, rural estate agencies and notaries' offices. Filter by region, by area or by legal form, and set up an e-mail alert to be told of every new transfer put online. Selling your shares? Post your listing to present them to the buyers and investors who use France's rural property portal.
