The September 2026 agricultural land barometer, produced by AI Partener AGRI and picked up by Libertatea on 21 October, puts the national average asking price at 36,401 lei per hectare, about 6,920 euro. Those are asking prices from listings, not prices in notarial deeds. This is not a new law.

The study used more than 6,700 listings from 40 counties. Goldring repeats the same figures, also pointing to Agrobiznes. A different set, Verifi, also measures asking prices, but with another method; we do not mix Verifi medians with this barometer’s mean.

The most expensive county in the barometer is Ilfov: 61,007 lei per hectare, more than 12,000 euro. Proximity to Bucharest, demand and possible conversion toward building land keep the price up. A headline that a hectare “costs as much as a studio flat” is a market comparison, not an ANCPI valuation of homes.

At the other end is Mehedinți: 22,737 lei per hectare, about 4,300 euro. The gap with Ilfov is more than 38,000 lei. A hectare asked in Ilfov is, on average, 2.7 times the asking price in Mehedinți.

Above the national mean sit agricultural counties in the west and south-east: Arad, Timiș, Satu Mare, Călărași, Ialomița and Vrancea, with asked averages between 42,000 and 46,000 lei per hectare. The authors tie those values to consolidation, irrigation and export, as market factors, not as a government measure.

Plot size changes the unit price. Parcels under one hectare, scattered, are often asked cheaper per hectare. Lots of 5–10 hectares, already consolidated, attract a premium. The figures remain listings, not completed sales.

The barometer’s authors note that bargaining at the notary can bring the sum below the asking price. Until transaction statistics exist, the closed fact is the September asking-price map: 36,401 lei per hectare on average, Ilfov above 12,000 euro, Mehedinți about 4,300, with no new price law.

Image: Gabriel, field in the Baragan, 22 June 2009, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; illustration of arable land, not a listed parcel from the barometer.

Sources consulted: Judetul din Romania unde un hectar de teren agricol costa cat o garsoniera. Unde sunt cele mai ieftine loturi si unde preturile sar de 12.000 de euro - Libertatea; Analiza preturilor terenurilor agricole in Romania in 2026 - Goldring.