The mass evaluation of land, conducted for the first time in 21 years, is meant to provide objective and up-to-date information about the market value of land.

Regular land evaluation is a market-based estimate and brings out the approximate market value, in effect its taxable value, per cadastre.

The board also notes that it provides general statistical information.

The 2022 assessment will be used from January 1 2024, while Estonia's local municipalities are to establish new land tax rates by July 1 next year, and the maximum taxation ceiling has by law been reduced between 2.5 and 5-fold.

Other legislative changes include a growth limit for land tax of no more than 10 percent per annum.

The evaluation excluded any buildings and also forest in which trees are being grown, and was compiled solely from database-held information; no on-site assessments were conducted.

Real estate transactions, information in the land cadastre and other key data sets, and data used in real estate market analysis was surveyed.

The Land Board conducted the assessment jointly with professional real estate appraisers.

Large-scale evaluations of this kind have been carried out in Estonia three times since the restoration of independence - in 1993, 1996 and in 2001.

Possible errors in the data are corrected and a new value is calculated.

Once the evaluation results are made public to all on Monday, any errors or other feedback can be filed, and any necessary re-calculations will then be made.

The value of each piece of land will be viewable in the updated land cadastre (link in Estonian) by searching for the cadastral unit of interest by address or cadastral code and opening "Maa väärtuse info" ("Land value info").

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