Anyone heard od ''Century Land group''?

ILW

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Another friend received a brochure from a company called "Investment Land UK Ltd" but took my advice and didn't invest. Brochure had some misleading info, but the most interesting bit is that if they sell all the plots they will get about £6 million.

Apparently they have virtually sold out. They may find one or two in reserve if you have the cash though.

cityvalidator

Hey...I don't know what the big fuss is about, I have just had them on the phone, don't know where they got my number from but I'm glad they did.

I can invest in prime land, and I quote 'Land is a finite resource' at the very reasonable price of £8 per sq ft.

£8, that's nothing, how much of us waste £8 on a daily basis. Look at what you can do in a square foot....stand, sit, er...swing a cat, mmm...build a house.....well maybe not.

An acre though, you could build loads. I've done a bit of research and you could fit maybe 2-3 decent family homes with gardens and parking on a 1 acre plot

We'll need some space for roads though, paving, amenities etc...ok we'll say 2 houses per acre for arguments sake

Right...£8 per sq ft, 43,500 sq ft per acre = £348,000 per acre so thats a cost to us of £174,000 per house

Yeah, we can easily make 250% profit in 18 months, we'll knock out all the houses up t'north at £435,000 each and I'll see you all on the beach for pina colada's at sunset.
:beer:

gfkw47

For anyone wanting the facts about this scheme, it is not a complete scam in the sense that with very little thought and effort anyone can establish the reality behind the scheme. But then little old ladies get thousands scammed out of them by people who tell them they have a roof tile loose!

CLG success is down to the fact that investors do not bother to check out the detailed background.

CLG markets land that has been bought (not necessarily by them) speculatively because it has some potential for getting permission for development at some time in the future. There is no guarantee of timing or it ever happening. Typically the land is bought for a higher price than the agricultural land value because of this potential. So a 5 acre site may cost them £65,000.

They produce very professional looking literature which is sent out to potential investors who have been contacted by phone and had the hard sell. The document has a plan showing the whereabouts of the land and a more detailed one showing how it will be divided up into individual plots which is what they are trying to sell.

The catches are:

1)They squeeze in a ridiculous number of plots - typically 25+ per acre. Some of them are so tiny it would be impossible to build on it.
2)The cost per plot to them is therefore about £500 each - and they are selling them for £10,000 upwards. In other words a site costing them £65,000 they will sell for £1.25 million.
3) They will say that "if" planning permission is granted (and they play no part in applying for this) the value is likely to multiply by a factor of at least 10. This is possible - but 10x what they paid for it not what the investor paid for it.
4) So theoretically and at best the land may endup valued at £5000 per plot.
5) But the worst part of this is that the land, in individual plots, is worthless even with planning permission. It would be impossible for each plot owner to build on his own piece of land. It would be 100 or more people having to negotiate access over land owned by others to get to his plot, agreeing together about paying and laying access roads, and the supply of water, gas, electricity sewage etc.
6) The only viable way would be for a development company to take over. The difficulties are that they would not be interested in negotiating with 100+ owners to buy their plots, and even if they did they would never pay the price paid by the investors.

I have done the research and have the evidence. Don't touch it with a bargepole!

lsiennaco

do not trust anything that anyone from Century Land Group tells you. If they offer a guarantee believe you me it is not worth the paper it is written on. They will tell you anything to seel you the land, once they got your money you are on your own.