Anyone here who is knowledgeable about landbanking, i.e. buying plots of land that may get planning permission?

No but I have been contacted by a company called Rutherford Ross Ltd who are offering plots in Hittisleigh, Exeter.

Does anybody know this company as I cannot find any information about them on the Web.

Carlq

That's usually not a good sign...

I have, in the meantime, done some more research on this, and the conclusion is: Don't touch with a bargepole.


Basically, these companies speculatively buy land without planning permission near built-up areas. They then divide the plot into lots of small parcels, and sell these parcels on for a huge mark-up for a price somewhere half-way between that of farmland and land with planning permission. They build a "case" around the plot, stating why it has good chances of getting planning permission. This "case" is based entirely their opinion, and I know of one case where the local councils has actually put a warning on its website saying that the council has no plans to grant planning permission for the site in question.

So basically, they make a huge profit from buying the plot, dividing it up and selling the parcels. Whether the land later gets planning permission or not is then irrelevant to them.

I read somewhere that even if the land was to get planning permission later, no developer would ever buy it, because they would not want to deal with hundreds of indvidual sellers of small parcels.

Check out this link for more information.

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/foolseyeview/2004/fev040817c.htm

There was one of these companys on Watchdog the other week ......... stay well clear

If planning was going to be forthcoming they'd get it themselves and make a killing, rather than flogging it to others as a 'favour'!

Dont touch these. There value in the home counties is approx £10,000 to £20,000 per acre. Been offered loads of these plots. Your better of buying a new build shoebox, at least you can rent it out...

That in itself is a bad sign.

Think about it: you want some more audiovisual entertainment in the evening. Do you:

a ) wait for a cold-call / junk mail telling you what to buy,
b ) log on to a review site / hit the high street and the demo rooms?

Safe to say it would be b ). You'd do this despit ethe fact that even top-range home cinemas won't set you back more than £10k.

But when you are looking to shell out serious money on "investments" you are happy to restrict your search to what drops thru your letterbox. You have to change your way of thinking. If you have money to invest (rather than burn) be more proactive. Read investment sites, books and magazines to see what asset classes would be suitable. Don't restrict yourself to what some high-pressure sales team want to push on you. See, now you are feeling really stupid and lazy for even having raised this question. That doesn't matter. What matters is that you stop being somebody who accepts what is offered and become somebody who takes what they've tracked down.

Some investment guru's saying that it's a relatively safe investment opportunity, you can visit the website below to know more about land banking:
http://www.elp-landbanking.org.uk

Hi I can tell you about rutherford ross it is run by a doggy Indian call Shaun Singh he says it is based in Holland but in fact he runs it from Richmond. He has been involved in lots of doggy things like property letting. Its basically the same things he gives you something that is worthless and gives you lots of promises but never comes up with the goods. If you give him any money you will get the land but it is worthless and it has no chance of getting planning permission in my opinion.

Interesting to read another side to the story.Myself and three other colleagues invested with rutherford ross in amsterdam,we sold 3 of our plots from the 6 we bought.We made a healthy profit of 30% per annum.This was by selling privately,so there is scope to make money in this game.We were contacted from Holland and we have the numbers in Holland where we phone regularly.The company is owned by an offshore trust.We know this as the title deeds given to us by their lawyers show this,no idea about this Richmond story.All we know is that the tel nos,faxes emails,letters are in Holland and we attached links,so people can make their own minds uo..My experience from open forums like this is that most of the scaremongering going on is instigated by competitors or by the real dodgy outfits.
The tel no is 0031204037328,fax no 0031204037329.

The address in accordance with the lawyers information is

Busitel1,Orlyplein 85,1043 DS Amsterdam The Netherlands.
A very good site they are selling is in Ashford in KENT.Call them on the above numbers if you are interested

Web Site: http://www.rutherfordross.com

http://www.gos.gov.uk/497648/docs/171301/3...AmendChap12.pdf

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conserva...2031755,00.html

Graphic: Building site England - Large infrastructure projects in planning or proposed
http://society.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329...-105909,00.html

First post from a newbie so it must be genuine ??

Hmm, 1plotman seems uncannily similar to lando posting at this link:

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?p=426354

That alone proves to me that it's a scam.

Plenty of poor souls discussing this on:

http://www.propertyscam.org.uk/d6plinks/6WYF5X

Here's just one example, there's plenty more and the scam is not just limited to any one outfit

Hi Yep purchased land in London from a company Rutherford Ross,
there was delays in fact it took 4 years so l would not recomend if you need a quick return on your investment,
that said they did keep me updated with the delay and the return l received upon sale was higher than they initialy quoted..
Hope helps Cheers

HI,


HOW CAN I ASK HOW MUCH YOU INVESTED?


THAX X

Dear Starbuyer,

Sorry dont mean to be unhelpfull but,

dont wish to give out that info,

any other questions,

l would be more than willing to help,

know investing can be a mine field lol

HI THANKS

NO WORRIES,

DID YOU RECEIVE THE TITLE DEEDS?

FOR YOUR LAND..

yep but it took about 8 weeks,

as you can see there is some negitive posts,

but supose there are two sides to any story,

I've invested some of the profit in another site,

so just another 3-4 year wait..

hi ho....

Good Luck