Procedure of offering and exercising right of first refusal on immovable property differs in countries across the globe. Right of first refusal bestowed on local governments by the law is the most controversial one with extreme opinions on both sides — some believe that local governments need extensive opportunities to exercise right of first refusal, while others, quite to the opposite, think that the local governments should not hold such rights at all. If the local governments have free hands to exercise the right of first refusal on real estate, it should be considered as an administrative hindrance impeding transactions with real estate. It is evidenced, for instance, by Doing Business' criterion Registering Property, according to which it takes five days to receive a rejection of right of first refusal in order to register the property rights in Latvia. There is an opinion that local governments exercise their right of first refusal in rare cases. To examine that hypothesis, data were obtained from local governments in Latvia regarding the number of cases when the right of first refusal was exercised between 2015 and 2017. The final part of the study offers a solution to the adverse consequences caused by efforts to bypass statutory right of first refusal given to local governments.