The Property Partnership

wimblewomble_2

got a call from a lovely lady extolling the virtues of buying land as an investment.
the upshot is, once the land gains planning permission, investment can grow substantailly in value.

did the usual web search with the extra word "scam" to see if any issues arose.
some generic websites etc, but nothing specific.
is this a "landbank" investment?

dacouch

Sounds like it, they are normallly scams

isplumm

Hi,

Yes ... but what are the chances of this land ever getting planning permission??

Mark

trisontana

These are the people to contact:-

http://www.propertyscam.org.uk/

trisontana

Oh look another new member praising a scam to high heaven. And yet again with very poor English and grammar skills. Of course it's a scam. If you don't believe me, just listen to this (Real Player):-

You and Yours

spuds_2

I think InvestmentMan has been googling his own company, saw this and thought he would chip in.

In my view all these land banking schemes are scams - they are green-belt or agricultural land and very unlikely to get planning permission now or in the future. Here's one company wound up this year:

"Following an investigation by the Insolvency Service, the director of a land banking business has been prohibited from being a director for seven years.
33 year-old Timothy Wren, based in Ormskirk, Lancashire, was found to have conned investors out of £3.5 million by selling agricultural land at inflated value.

Through his Land Banking (UK) plc company, he made misleading statements to investors that planning was likely to be granted for the land, and its value would increase “ten-fold”.

However, a spokesman for the Insolvency Service said that if investors did any due diligence “they would see there was not a hope in hell of getting planning permission.”

That just about sums up the reality of investing in land-banking of this nature.

Full story here:

http://www.bridgingandcommercial.co.uk/newsstory?id=651&type=newsfeature&title=director_banned_for_3_5m_land_banking_scam

ManAtHome

They appear regularly in This is Money - you decide...
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=442527&in_page_id=2
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=418185&in_page_id=2
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/ask-an-expert/mortgages/article.html?in_article_id=409310&in_page_id=109

trisontana

Why is it that when the owners/employees of scam companies come on here to praise that company they cannot string a decent sentence together? We have the above rubbish, plus the efforts from the Southend boy-wonder, and they guy from the dodgy time-share company. Perhaps that's the only jobs they can get?

hawkwinddotcom

Reading the investmentmans post is difficult but isnt he slagging off UKLI?

Firefox1975

To be honest - if you were to buy land currently in the Green or Brown belts it could be a potential moneymaker in the future. They are all up for review by the governement in the next 2-3 years with a view to them becoming available for construction upon.

There is no guarantee about individual places though - it is a bit of a lottery.

Also, the people who currently own this land are not stupid. I woudl be surprised if they even entertained a potential buyer right now. After all - they have sat on this land for so long they aren;t going to be bothered about waiting a few more years! they will wait and see if any of their land gets planning permission and then just sell it at the (then) going market rate!

So, the principal behind landbanking is fairly sound and not fraudulent at all, however, be wary of these third party intermediaries above who will take your money now and dissapear overnight.

If you are going to buy land - get the title in your own (Or more commonly - your companies or LLP's) name!

theinvestmentman_2

Hello all!!. I seem to have upset the apple cart with a few senior members!!.

Allow me to start by saying I can only go by my personal experience within land banking!!.

I see some members are more observent then others.. UKLI indeed was a company I was ''slagging off'' as you would put it. I have to make something clear. My own land investment was with a company called ''Scala''. It worked for me why cant it work for others??.

Lets face facts- 808% is the value that land has increased within 20years. 468% is the increase of value within property!. We cant make anymore of it!!. we cant build out of the sand at dover!!! so its going to go up!!.

All im saying is that possibly we shouldnt tarnish all investment companies with the same brush???.

I stumbled accross this site after I too was approached via The Property Partnership. I had a call from a charming young lady who I aggreed to recieve an information pack from on the sites that were being offered via her company. After my win the first time I was more open to this the second, but like all investments you have to do your research. On doing so this site popped up and what appeared to be very blinkerd views, from people that I do not beleave have ever taken part in land banking or have never taken part with the services of this particuler company!!. after seeing an indervidual asking for guidence, no one seemed to offer assistance on her investment decission but simply decided to gun it down and declare that the company had to be a SCAM!!!!.

Well pointed out to the member that has picked up on my spelling issue!! Beleave you me, you are not the first to pick this up!!.

Iv been very lucky in my investment choices over the years. fine wine,gold,antiques,property, and LAND are all winners during this global downturn. all tangible assets are winners.

look at it like this- we have to be carefull when going with any company that calls us up over the phone, its very important that we do our own research on any investment.

I aggree 110% with FireFox1975. Land banking is not a get rich quick plan. it does take time. but look- more immigration then ever before, more split homes, teenage pregnancy, longer life expectency, change in planning status, 3.5 million homes being built in the uk (only accounting to 19km sq hardly paving over the uk, so location is key). £925m being pumped into stalled housing projects accross the uk. £1.5bn being injected to affordable housing. interest rates low,inflation high. quantitive easing programme being blown out of proportion, FTSE 100 taking a slide....need I say anymore???. regardless of what company. land banking is a good option, providing that its a calculated risk and providing you choose your plot correctly!!.