Emotional bonds as obstacles to land sale—Attitudes to land among local and absentee landowners in Northwest Estonia

Despite the importance of the emotional attachment to land among landowners affected by Soviet collectivisation, relatively few studies have focused on this question. In Estonia, the land restitution process in the 1990s made it possible to return nationalised property to its former owners or their heirs. Many of these now live abroad or in other parts of the country. This paper shows that the opportunity to own restituted property may create strong emotional bonds to land. This study also attempts to discuss what these bonds mean to different categories of landowners and how this can affect attitudes to land and plans for the future. The study is based on a postal survey and interviews. One implication of a strong attachment to land can be reluctance to sell the land. A group of absentee owners wants to keep the land as preventive owners without using it. This non-active land ownership has implications for the area, with its potential for tourism and second homes. A historically rooted emotional attachment to land among owners of restituted property is most common among the locals and the Swedish owners. Memories associated with the land in question are identified as one important aspect of the evolvement of such emotional bonds. On the basis of the results I argue that those among the next generation of absentee owners who lack these kinds of memories could be more inclined to sell family land in the future.

Research highlights▶ Historically rooted emotional values of land are a strong incentive for keeping the property. ▶ Landowners often want to pass on emotional values associated with land to the next generation. ▶ Non-economic motives for owning land in the area seem to override the economic ones for most of the owners investigated. ▶ Emotional values appear to govern owners’ decisions about land to a great extent.