The COVID-19 pandemic implied a greater appreciation of rural activities in Ecuador.
The expression “for sale” is observed in the rural areas of the country, along the roads, in the midst of crops, pastures and forests.
The road to the coast from Guayaquil is a sample of the mercantile movement around rural lands.
Prices vary according to the type of soil of the land, the possibility of accessing water for human consumption and irrigation through a well or a river or stream, the proximity of a road that leads to the main consumer markets or if there is electricity, analysts agree.
The COVID-19 pandemic it is one of the last factors that raised the value of rural lands. This generated at least a momentary return from the city to the countryside and a greater interest in acquiring rural properties and investing to diversify income or guarantee own consumption with production.
“They see it as an opportunity to generate income beyond what is earned in the cities. Put the eggs in different baskets, because if one falls and breaks, the other can support you ”, indicates Marcos Armijo, CEO of the real estate franchise Travi Bienes Raíces.
In the field, he adds, the land is worth what it can be harvested, since a hectare of rice in which production is extracted once or twice a year is not the same as another with technical use in which up to three are harvested. times in twelve months.
The existence of irrigation infrastructure and electric power services makes investment in land attractive on the edges of the road to the coast, which leads to the province of Santa Elena and the canton of Playas, in Guayas.
The Average cost of one hectare (ha) was between $ 800 and $ 1,000 about ten years ago in the latter area. Now, with the pandemic, then, the price reaches $ 3,000 per ha, according to Armijo. “There is an increase of 150%. There is production of bananas, grapes, sugar cane, which a decade ago was unthinkable due to the lack of water ”.
The increase is similar in the productive areas of the provinces of Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and the north of Manabí. “A one-hectare farm in the Mocache canton, in the south of Los Ríos, where rice is grown cost $ 4,000 per hectare ten years ago, and now it is worth up to $ 10,000.”
But in the lower parts of Los Ríos, such as Buena Fe, with less access to water, the cost varies between $ 3,000 and $ 4,000 per ha.
The increases are at a slower rate in the driest areas, with little access to water, such as in the Pedro Carbo and Santa Lucía cantons, in Guayas, where the average cost per ha went from $ 700 to $ 1,000 in the last decade.
The study Inequities and land published this year by the Central University of Ecuador makes a diagnosis of the land policy and structure of Ecuador, as indicated by its title, and shows the existing price level according to the latest rural cadastre available in the country.
Research carried out with analysts from the Research System on Agrarian Problems in Ecuador (Sipae) and funded by the European Union indicates that the highest cost per hectare (ha) is in the provinces of Azuay and Cañar, in both with an average of between $ 15,000 and $ 35,000.
Melissa Ramos, a sociologist and researcher on the study, assures that the most expensive rural lands in the country are in Azuay, where there are properties that sell for more than $ 112,000 per ha, according to data from the National Information System on Rural Lands and Technological Infrastructure (Sigtierras). “Inaccessible to the bulk of the population.”
The high migration abroad from this area leaves income that influences the cost of land, says Francisco Hidalgo, a researcher at Sipae.
The provinces of Cotopaxi, Galápagos, Morona Santiago and Pichincha, which together have an average value that ranges between $ 8,000 and $ 9,000 per ha. “There is the impact of more intensive productions, such as floriculture and broccoli in Cotopaxi and Pichincha”, adds the specialist.
In a third level are Carchi, El Oro, Guayas and Imbabura, where it costs, together with all of them, between $ 6,000 to $ 7,500 average per hectare..
Guayas is the one with the highest prices in the Costa region with a cost of $ 25,364 per ha.
“On the coast is the impact linked to agro-exports, on the one hand, the banana sector, palm or corn and fruit crops,” says Hidalgo.
A At the end of the nineties it cost an average of between $ 2,000 and $ 3,000 in the provinces of Imbabura and Pichincha and today it is four and almost three times more in their ordersays Hidalgo, referring to the prices that were paid in a land redistribution project.
The value of legalized lands in the rest of the country’s provinces is between $ 1,000 and $ 5,000 per ha.
“In the Amazon region are the most economical rural lands. The highest is the province of Sucumbíos, with $ 18,632 per hectare ”, adds Ramos, when analyzing separately.
They are average prices, so the high cost in one area is offset by lower values in other sectors of the same province or of others, if it is calculated as a group.
The report states that “the average price of rural property in areas of agricultural and livestock use … is approximately $ 6,000 per ha” at the national level.
“There are speculation processes. We are in a small country with significant demographic growth. Land is scarce, which prompts us to propose a serious debate on how cities grow. We are talking about the fact that the central Sierra will be almost entirely urbanized within 50 years. There is a reduced supply and a great demand ”, assures Ramos.
Speculation in order to facilitate illicit activities raises prices in Esmeraldas
The causes of the increase are varied, depending on the sector of the country. For example, the price is higher in areas of the north of the Esmeraldas province, which border Colombia, due to factors such as speculation to obtain land and facilitate the execution of illicit activities, says agricultural engineer Diana Montesdeoca, a researcher at Sipae.
“One of the factors that influence the price of land is the violence generated by drug trafficking; it is something exclusive and punctual in this sector of the country. These violent groups enter the area and buy at a higher market price with the intention of avoiding searches and questions about the origin of the money. The sale is done yes or yes (with intimidation if they refuse to sell) ”, he says.
The price also goes up by the lands that adjoin the areas of the companies that grow bananas, grapes or rice, or those that are close to the urbanizations due to the expansion of Guayaquil, as in the La Aurora parish of the Daule canton (in Guayas), which are sold by the square meter, not by ha, says Armijo.
The land that supports the crops that grow at the foot of the houses of these private developments costs $ 50 per square meter, that is, $ 500,000 for one ha, which has 10,000 square meters, adds the real estate manager. “That’s where these lands are sold now, but about ten years ago it cost up to $ 15,000 for the entire hectare.”
This is influenced by the demand for land for urban expansion, a factor that adds up to and exceeds what can be obtained by producing the land in that area.
In fact, 10 km from the Ciudad Celeste urbanization, advancing along the road to Salitre, there are rural properties that sell for $ 40 per square meter. They are lands more likely to be urbanized.
“The proximity to the city, the access roads to the land, the type of cultivation that can be done, permanent or temporary, influence the price. The topography of the terrain, it is much easier to produce on flat terrain than one that is on a more difficult to manage hillside. The quality of the soil, there are clayey, sandy ”, says Montesdeoca.
It even influences how close the place is that sells agricultural inputs for production.
The evidence shows that the larger rural properties have expanded even more, so the offer is focused on this type of land.
In the period 2000-2017, the agricultural production units (UPA) with surfaces smaller than 5 ha have not had significant changes, those from 5 to 50 ha decreased their average area by 9.45%, those between 50 ha and less than 200 ha were reduced by 1.29% and those with more than 200 ha increased 67.89%, indicates the study.
The Average surface area of properties larger than 200 ha went from 543.15 ha to 911.88 ha in the last 17 years, according to the Sipae study.
“On the coast there is the phenomenon of reconcentration of the land, that is, large properties continue to grow, while in the central Sierra the smallholding is reproduced, multiplication of the small ones. The average area of rural properties in the province of Chimborazo is 0.72 haThey do not even reach one hectare, and in some, even food production is unfeasible, ”says Ramos.
The multiplication of the population that inherits their parents’ lands and the growth of cities influence this phenomenon of reduction of the average area of the smallest plots and the decrease of agricultural lands.
“The cities are growing in a disorderly way on agricultural land, which has caused that the minimum plot in rural areas is now less than one ha, especially in the central Sierra. Covering agricultural land with cement puts food production at serious risk, ”says Ramos.
Hidalgo proposes that the role of the State is to guarantee that the peasants who cultivate and work in the fields have access to the land so that not only those who have the capital acquire the land.
An example of the growth of cities is Manta, whose populated area in 2010 was 2,561.9 ha, while the populated area in 2020 is 4,047.9 ha, in 10 years it increased 1,485.97 ha, according to the study. (I)
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