Bulgaria tightens land ownership requirements to non-EU companies and citizens

Bulgaria’s Parliament approved a ban on citizens and corporations based outside the EU and offshore companies, directly or indirectly buying land, as well as a five-year floor for the term of agricultural land rent contracts. This includes also the ownership of land through investments in bourse-traded companies. The penalties are to come into force from May 1 and according to the statements would amount to BGN 100 per daa initially, and BGN 300 per daa if the violation is still not corrected 3 months later. The Parliament also allowed the purchase of government land in tenders with compensatory notes. Prior to the change, only compensatory vouchers were accepted as payment in these tenders. These amendments to the Land Ownership Act follow an amendment implemented last year to extend the moratorium on foreigners being allowed to buy land in Bulgaria from its scheduled expiry date of 1 January 2014 to the beginning of 2020. Some of the biggest land owners in Bulgaria are public companies with a broad shareholder base, including Advance Terrafund REIT, with 217k daa and Agro Finance REIT with 141k daa as of December 2014.