Land Banking

In message , none writes

What do you want to know about landbanking, and why.

In simple terms, developers buy land now, do nothing with it for some time, then develop it. E.g. barratts may have a policy of having a 5 year land bank so that if ever there is a shortage, or it is too expensive, they have enough to ride the storm for a few years.

English partnership tend to deal with large projects, particularly regeneration AFAIK.

In the case of

they are selling greenbelt land plots which you can't do anything with immediately.

1. How can you actually value the land yourself to make sure you're not getting ripped off?
2. If you're buying a house one gets a surveyor to make sure its ok. What kind of similar searches can one do when buying greenbelt land?
3. How does one estimate the likelihood that you will be able to build on it at some point in the future?

Aha! It is a scam - I mistakenly assumed that the web site was of The English Partnership, not The English Land Partnership.

They are obviously selling land at a massive profit, suggesting that you will make money WHEN it gets planning permission for residential building.

This type of thing has featured on Watchdog and the various bits of land they looked at would be highly unlikely to get planning permission for a long long time, if ever.

My reply was correct, but not in context with the question - sorry ;(

The subjet of Land Banking can be contentious for some. It involves the aquiring of land which is not ready to be developed yet. The large developers, builders & finance houses have been doing it for decades. As I understand things, The English Land Partnership are effectively 'retailing' land to investors-the public- who would normally not have either the expertise or money to buy a large piece of suitable land. I know this as 2 of my friends have invested with that company. They are happy to leave their cash in for a few years & see what, well, develops. If you check any RICS / ODPM / Savills / Barrtts websites, they all bang on about the lack of land for affordable housing being a serious issue over the next few years. I dont know much else about this, but do know they arent making any more of the stuff, ( Which was exactly why my friends invested)