Farm rents : France compared with the rest of Europe

On 1 October 2026, hundreds of thousands of rural leases will be revalued by +3.23%. It is the biggest increase in the national farm rent index since 2023, and every landlord will apply it mechanically to their rent. But behind this news lies a question few landowners ask themselves : when it comes down to it, is a French farm rent expensive ?

The answer is surprising. With an average rent of €171 per hectare per year, France sits near the bottom of the European ranking, far behind the Union average (€295/ha) and light years away from the Netherlands (€941/ha). A hectare of farmland thus rents for five times less in the Beauce than in Holland.

This article reviews farm rents in France, takes a tour of agricultural rents across Europe, explains the origin of this gap and draws the practical consequences for a landlord or a land investor. Because, as we shall see, a low rent does not mean a poor investment.

Farm tenancy in France : a regulated rent, up 3.23% in 2026

In France, the rent for farmland is not freely negotiated. The statutory farm tenancy regime, codified in articles L411-11 et seq. of the Rural Code, requires the rent to fall between minimum and maximum levels set by prefectoral order in each département. These ranges, expressed in euros per hectare, vary according to the type of land (arable land, grassland, special crops) and often according to small agricultural regions.

Once the rent is set in the lease, it is updated each year by the national farm rent index, published by ministerial order. This index is made up 60% of the change in gross farm business income per hectare (RBEA) over the last five years and 40% of the change in the GDP price.

2026 index : 127.04, up 3.23%

The order of 11 August 2026 sets the 2026 national farm rent index at 127.04, against 123.06 in 2025, an increase of +3.23%. In detail, the "farm income" component comes out at 126.85 and the "GDP price" component at 127.32. This year's rise is mainly explained by the rebound in 2025 farm income (+4.72%), which more than offset the poor year of 2024.

This revaluation applies to rent instalments falling due from 1 October 2026. We detailed how it is calculated and how it is applied in our article on the 2026 farm rent index.

Over a longer period, the increase is significant :

Change in the national farm rent index 2019-2026 (base 100 in 2009) — Source : ministerial orders published in the Journal officiel.

Between 2019 and 2026, the index rose by more than 21%. A farm rent of €150/ha signed in 2019 therefore now stands at around €182/ha, without any renegotiation having been necessary.

An average rent of €171 per hectare in 2024

How much does a let hectare actually bring in ? According to the data France reports to Eurostat, the average rent for land and meadows stood at €171/ha/year in 2024, against €163 in 2023 and €147 in 2019. The increase (+16% in five years) logically tracks that of the index.

This national average obviously masks wide disparities between arable land in the Paris Basin and a mountain pasture : the maxima in the prefectoral orders vary fourfold depending on the département and the category of land. There is, however, no public statistic on the rents actually charged by département : only the prefectoral orders provide the regulatory ranges, which you can consult on the website of each prefecture or DDT.

How much does a hectare rent for among our neighbours ? A tour of Europe

Every year, Eurostat publishes the average rents for agricultural land in the Member States (dataset apri_lrnt). The 2024 data, updated in January 2026, make it possible to place France in the European landscape.

Average rent for agricultural land (arable land and/or grassland) in the European Union in 2024, in €/ha/year — Source : Eurostat, apri_lrnt. * Germany : national Destatis 2023 figure from the farm structure survey (average rent per hectare of rented UAA), with a different scope from Eurostat. ** Malta and Croatia : latest available year. Italy has not reported data since 2020 (€837/ha that year).

Three lessons emerge from this ranking.

The gap is considerable. Between Slovakia (€69) and the Netherlands (€941), the rent for a hectare varies by a factor of 14. The agricultural rental market is nothing like a single European market.

France is in the bottom third. At €171/ha, it rents 42% below the Union average and half the price of Germany or Belgium, its immediate neighbours with comparable agronomic conditions. It is level with Czechia, a country where land nevertheless sells for around twice as much.

The type of land weighs heavily. Everywhere in Europe, arable land rents for noticeably more than grassland : €404/ha against €180/ha on average in the Union. The French figure of €171 is a national "blend" that mixes arable land and pasture, unlike Poland or Romania, which report only their arable land. These differences in scope call for caution over close rankings, but they do not call into question the overall picture.

Why is France near the bottom of the ranking ?

The first explanation lies in the regulated nature of the rent. In the Netherlands, Denmark or Ireland, the rent for land results from a largely free market : it reflects the scarcity of land, competition between farmers and the value added of the produce (market gardening, horticulture, intensive dairy farming). When a hectare of polder can generate several thousand euros of margin, the farmer agrees to pay €900 in rent.

In France, the logic is reversed. The rent is capped by prefectoral order and its evolution is indexed to farmers' income (60% of the index), not to the value of the land. The statutory tenancy regime, inherited from 1946, was designed to protect the farmer and guarantee them a sustainable rent, even if it means limiting the owner's return. It fulfils that role, at the cost of a lasting disconnect between the rent and the economic value of the land.

Malta offers a caricatural example of the same mechanism. Rent there is also capped by law, at €92/ha on average, for land whose market value reached €268,649/ha in 2023 according to Eurostat, owing to urban pressure on the island. The rental yield there is below 0.05%. Here again, the regulated rent severs any link between the price of land and what it earns.

The second explanation is simpler still : French land is cheap. A hectare of unlet land and meadows sold for €6,460 in 2025 according to the FNSAFER, against €96,608 for arable land in the Netherlands (Eurostat, 2024). Even without regulation, a rent consistent with such a price would have remained low. We will devote a forthcoming article to this question : why is French farmland worth fifteen times less than in the Netherlands ?

The French paradox : low rents, rental yield among the best

This is where the ranking turns on its head. For an investor, what matters is not the rent in absolute terms but the yield, in other words the ratio between the rent received and the capital tied up. And when Eurostat rents are set against sale prices, France climbs back to the top of the ranking.

Gross rental yield of farmland (annual rent / sale price), 2024 orders of magnitude — Sources : Eurostat (apri_lrnt, apri_lprc), Destatis, FNSAFER. 2024 sale prices from Eurostat apri_lprc (arable land, except France : land and meadows combined); Germany : average 2023 Kaufwert (BMEL/Destatis), a statistic that includes peri-urban micro-plots and is not directly comparable with SAFER prices. Calculations by ma-propriete.fr, to be read as orders of magnitude : the collection scopes for rents and prices differ from one country to another.

The message is clear. The French farm rent is low in absolute terms, but it earns proportionally more than a Dutch pacht or a German lease, quite simply because the capital that has to be tied up to obtain it is much smaller. An investor who buys €100,000 of let land in France receives around €2,700 of gross rent per year ; in the Netherlands, the same sum would bring in only €1,000.

What this means for an owner or an investor

For the existing landlord

The first reflex is to check that the +3.23% revaluation is applied to instalments falling due from 1 October 2026. Indexation is automatic in law, but it does not happen by itself : it is up to the owner to recalculate the rent and notify the tenant. Our farm rent calculator lets you do this in a few seconds.

Beyond this year's news, the French landlord enjoys a distinctive framework : a rent that is admittedly capped, but indexed, secure and paid by a farmer who has every interest in keeping the land. In return, repossessing the property to sell it unlet or to farm it oneself is tightly regulated, and the tenant has a right of pre-emption in the event of a sale.

For the investor

The European comparison leads to a counter-intuitive conclusion : among the major agricultural countries of Western Europe, France is the one where let land offers the best rental yield. And that yield can be improved further at the time of purchase. Land that is already let sells for less than unlet land : €5,350/ha against €6,460/ha in 2025 according to the FNSAFER, a discount of around 17%. For an investor who does not intend to farm, this discount translates mechanically into a higher return on the capital invested (€171 set against €5,350 gives 3.2% gross).

Three precautions are nonetheless essential before buying let land : examine the lease (remaining term, long-term lease or 9-year lease, repossession clauses), make sure the sitting tenant is financially sound, and check the actual rent against the ranges in the prefectoral order, because a rent that has been undervalued for years is not easily caught up.

Would you like to know the value of your land, whether let or unlet, and the rent you could expect from it ? Our land valuation study gives you an estimate based on real transactions in your area. And if you are considering selling or acquiring farmland, our introduction service puts you in touch with the right professionals in your département.

Conclusion

The French farm rent is a singular object in Europe. One of the lowest rents on the continent (€171/ha against €295 on average in the Union), it nonetheless offers one of the best rental yields, because the land itself is cheap. This system, inherited from the 1946 statutory tenancy regime, protects the tenant, secures the landlord and keeps the cost of access to land very low for farmers. It also has its downside : a capped return for the owner and taxation that erodes a good part of the yield.

One question remains, which this tour of Europe raises without answering : if the French rent is consistent with the price of the land, why is that land worth fifteen times less than in the Netherlands ? That is the subject of our next article.

Find out more

• 2026 farm rent index : a 3.23% increase to apply to your rural leases
• Observatory of farmland prices in France
• Farm rent calculator and financial tools
• Discover the value of your land

Sources : Eurostat, Agricultural land prices and rents (2024) ; Eurostat news release of 28 January 2026 ; order of 11 August 2026 establishing the national farm rent index ; Destatis, press release 153/2024 ; FNSAFER, Le Prix des Terres.