Saturday, Aug 05, 2006
The gullable lose out again
Guardian Online: Landbankers on the back foot
One of Britain's biggest landbanking operations, Land Heritage (UK), has suspended operations, leaving question marks over £7m paid by 700 investors who bought small plots of farmland from the company. The plots were sold to investors on the basis that they were likely to be granted planning permission - and potentially make huge profits.
Posted by uncle chris @ 11:27 AM (158 views) Add Comment
4 Comments
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1. Btloptingout said...
About bloody time!
These firms are the "pinstrip farmers" (Ostrich Farming) of today and should be closed down.
Investors will find themselves with a small plot of a potato field that has zero chance of being developed this century.
Investors in these land banks should prepare themselves to completely write off their investment - they've been done.
Pinstripe Farming Co Ltd (1996) CLN 184
http://www.tmp.co.uk/case_law/m-s/casestdp.html
2. talking rot said...
This is a sign of "Property Madness". I looked into one of these schemes around Devizes in 2001, where a run down farm was sold off. The company selling the plots "expected to gain planning permission shortly." This was a high risk investment but no mention of the "small" risk of not getting planning permission was mentioned. Eventually, most of the plots were sold yet some 5 years later there are still no houses on the site.
You only had to look at the people involved to see they were just greedy gits seeking to fleece the stupid.
3. harold said...
There's a 'property' company in my area that does the same thing to beautiful green-field sites, and even has the impertinent cheek to put little pegs with string to mark out the hoped-for 'plots'. They are called "ISpy". I spy a bunch of 'Merchants' more like. (You don't have to be cockney to work that out.)
4. The Bald Man said...
Too many TV shows saying you can not lose on property investment!