In many countries in the eyes of small investors land comes as necessary attachment to residential real estate. It can be sold freely, in many cases to foreigners too. In some countries however this isn't a case. There are several restrictions attached to buying and selling land for agricultural, investment and residential purposes. From outside these differences look like a whim of the local legislator. Sometimes different land regulations come together with striking similarities in other economic and political features between the countries. Land becoming commodity is something that has been gradually developing at different speed in different areas. The process of turning it into commodity cannot be detached from other factors such as the social structure, the land abundance and the general macroeconomic policy in one or another country.

From times immemorial until very recently in terms of human history the land has been used mainly to feed those who cultivate it. The so-called subsistence agriculture, depending on the region, requires an enlarged family or small community to perform the main tasks, e.g. toiling and harvesting. Taking the land from these groups without adequate replacement leads to starvation. In order to keep their tenure on land and keep away greedy neighbors these small agricultural societies are ready to sacrifice part of their harvest to non-agricultural authorities, political and religious. The first traditional states result from this balance of interests between producers and protectors.

Traditional or quasi-traditional states performing similar tasks do exist today in many parts of the globe. When statistics show that in one particular country at least 90 percent live from agriculture we may be sure that we deal with subsistence agriculture; we may also be almost sure that the land is the only real asset, and that taking land from farmers will lead to starvation. Examples of such extreme dependency on land for whole societies are rare nowadays, but there are still many nations where half of the population or more are living from subsistence agriculture.

What are the consequences of having such kind of land tenure for people, especially foreigners, looking to buy agricultural land for investment or residential purposes? There are chances that such transactions may be legally forbidden, or heavily restricted, especially if this particular state is responsible politically to the people. The reason for this is simple. Farmers even with small land parcels are economically more financially independent from the state and thus don't require particular social assistance. The land in most countries is limited in quantity, meaning forcing people out of the land is difficult and painful process, requiring strong state and sufficient public support. Without strong economic incentives no government will do this. No surprise then that subsistence agriculture has survived intact for thousands of years.

Yet land can become commodity, and this process is what historians have gradually witnessed in different countries since 17-18 c. Peasant families are driven out of their land, the main purpose of the land becoming to feed the cities and the ever growing international trade. Instead of 95 peasants feeding 5 urban dwellers we have situations when 1 farmer feeds 99 citizens, and this seemingly isn't the limit. Between the ideal types of subsistence and market agriculture there is a huge historic gap. In the first one people are indispensable part of the parcel they are assign to; in the second, they are part of the market, everything around is commodity, including their own labor.

In societies where land is commodity like everything else, and where most people live in the cities, in such societies there are chances that foreign investors won't have any particular problems buying land, others than its scarcity and the unwillingness of farmers to sell their highly profitable businesses. Usually in such societies we see quickly mushrooming urban suburbs, a sign of both urban prosperity and of rural entrepreneurship. In societies where selling land may provide enough start-up capital for urban businesses, peasants are more inclined to renounce the subsistence agriculture. In societies where there aren't such alternatives and where the state is weak to uphold the urban dwellers' property rights, in this situation peasants will prefer keeping their parcels even if they are allowed to sell them.

Since 17-18 c. when England for the first time created a nation-wide land market the global urban population has grown from less than 5% to more than 50%. Despite its relative percentage decline, the global rural population now, including those living from subsistence agriculture, is several times what is was 200 years ago. In many developing countries the land is put under an increasing strain by growing rural population, by the need to provide vacant land for industrial development, and by the need to provide parcels for the growing urban population, among which we find increasing number of foreigners. Generally speaking the land is gradually turning into commodity. This process is however neither even, nor fast, nor secured from sudden and unexpected reverses here or there.