The Legal Regulation of Rental Contracts on the Land Rental Market in Slovakia

Rented land accounted for 53% of the total agricultural area at EU-27 level in 2009. Rented land as a proportion of total utilized agricultural area in Slovakia (UAA) is one of the highest (FADN, 2009). That is why land rent plays a very important role. Therefore, the Slovak law maker approved special legal regulation to stabilize the long-term rent of agricultural land. The paper analyses how these legal norms affect the behaviour of the land tenants doing their business activities in the agriculture. Within the paper, the development of the market farmland prices and farmland rental payments development with the administrative land prices and rental payments stipulated by the Slovak national law is analysed. Based on the research results we found out that prices of arable land have statistically significantly increased. In spite of these facts the market prices are still lower than their administrative prices(1) especially in the case of farmland of the highest quality. According to the results the rent payment for one hectare of land is not influenced by the minimum rent payment stipulated by law. Contrary, minimum rental period stipulated by law, legal forms of agricultural enterprises and quality of land have significant impact on the rental payments. The larger acreage of land of one agricultural businessman press down the land rent payments. The legal forms of enterprises as well as the land rent period belong to the dominant factors which influence the land rent payment. (1) Administrative price is a price of farmland stipulated by the law.