What is land reform?
At the beginning of the land reform, the focus was primarily on restoring the rights of former landowners and their descendants. At the same time, legislators also had to take into account the interests and rights of the owners of buildings located on unlawfully expropriated land and persons who had obtained land use rights under the Land Act.
Land reform has been carried out on land that has been entered in the land register and has been assigned an owner.
As of December 1, 2024, 7,661 hectares of Estonian land remains unreformed, with reforms still needed on approximately 11,570 land parcels. Unreformed land as of December 1, 2024
The objectives of land reform
- to rectify the injustice caused by the Soviet nationalization of land and restore the legal situation that existed prior to June 16, 1940;
- to transform relations based on state ownership of land into relations based primarily on private ownership, taking into account the continuity of the rights of former owners and the interests of current land users protected by law;
- to create conditions for more efficient use of land.
Content of the land reform
- land unlawfully expropriated from former owners or their legal successors shall be returned or compensated for;
- land shall be transferred, for a fee or free of charge, to the ownership of a private legal person, a public legal person or a local government unit;
- land to be retained by the state is determined;
- state-owned land is subject to usufruct or building rights in favor of the owner of the building.
The role of Land and Spatial Development Board in land reform
Land and Spatial Development Board directs, coordinates, and supervises the progress of land reform, carries out state land reform activities, participates in the drafting of land reform legislation, and resolves disputes related to land reform.
The Land and Spatial Development Board Land Reform Department is responsible for performing land reform tasks. The department carries out land reform activities, provides explanations and advises local governments, private individuals and other participants in land reform on land reform issues, and organizes the surveying of land to be retained by the state or the determination of land parcel boundaries on map material.
Land and Spatial Development Board manages land installment payment claims and performs the duties of a mortgagee on land privatized or returned during land reform, as well as deletes real encumbrances on residential premises from the land register once the installment payment has been paid in full.
The department has three offices, whose main activities are as follows:
- organizes the privatization of land, the transfer of agricultural land into use, and the establishment of building rights on state land in favor of the owner of the building;
- advises and supervises the activities of local governments in resolving claims by private individuals.
- determines the land to be retained in state ownership;
- carries out the necessary procedures for retaining land in state ownership;
- provides advice on matters relating to the retention of land in state ownership;
- carries out procedures for the incorporation of land without independent use into state land.
- determines the land to be transferred to municipal ownership;
- carries out the necessary procedures for transferring land to municipal ownership;
- provides advice on matters related to municipal land;
- carries out procedures for merging land that cannot be used independently with land in private or municipal ownership.
Bottlenecks arising from land reform
Problems with access to registered immovable property
When land was returned or privatized, situations arose where roads that had previously been in widespread use became the property of private owners who no longer allowed others to use them. As owners can no longer access their registered immovable property, many disputes and conflicts have arisen.
The situation is better in those municipalities where the problems that were likely to arise were anticipated and smaller roads were excluded from the land transferred to private ownership.
Boundary problems
When determining boundaries or conducting surveys in the field for the purpose of land reform, the boundaries of previously established cadastral units or the location of boundary markers were not always taken into account. As a result, there are situations where the boundaries of registered immovable properties do not coincide with the boundaries on the ground.
Differences in boundary data may also result from different measurement methods and accuracy. The decision to allow cadastral units to be formed on the basis of plans or maps significantly accelerated land reform, but this has also led to errors and misunderstandings in boundary issues.
Dilapidated or illegal buildings
Under the land reform, only the owner of a legally constructed and usable building can become the owner or user of the land. Unfortunately, there are a large number of illegal or dilapidated buildings on unreformed land, and the land under these buildings will mostly remain in state ownership during the land reform process.
This will result in disputes for the state during the implementation of the land reform, as well as additional tasks and obligations for the state as a landowner at a later stage.
Minutes of the Land Reform Commission meetings
Last updated: 31.10.2025
