Mar 17 2008
Jardin Smith International
Last Saturday, I was invited to a exhibition held by Jardin Smith International, a local company that sells UK land to investors in Singapore and other countries. Jardin Smith International holds these kinds of events quite frequently, each time at a different venue. In my case, it was held at Ritz Carlton Hotel. I have not been to Ritz before, so it took me a while to find the place.
Upon arrival, I was greeted by a client relationship manager (or salesperson), whose job was to make me feel comfortable and explain to me the concept of how it all works. So I was treated to some free food and there was the usual idle talk before we got down into business.
Having already been to a presentation by another company that sells UK land, Profitable Plots, I was familiar with the concept. Here’s how it works:
- The company purchases a plot of greenbelt land. This is land that cannot be developed unless it is rezoned (a process known as getting planning permission) by the government.
- The land is sub-divided into many smaller plots and sold to investors.
- The company retains 25% of the land so that it is also “vested” along with the investors.
- The company goes out to apply for planning permission. This process will take many years. As such, this is more of a long term investment. We are told this would take five to ten years at the minimum.
- Once planning permission is obtained, the value of the land will rise 5-10 times (from your purchase price) and you can realise your gains when the entire site is sold. In Jardin Smith International’s case, 60% of the owners will have to agree before it can be sold.
The reasons why we should investing in UK land (as told by the company) are as follows:
- UK has a housing problem and land will only become lesser and lesser.
- The price of land has been increasing steadily (About 20-fold in the last 15 years).
- 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London and this will have positive effect on the property market.
The plot on offer by Jardin was being sold for a cool $30,000. An initial deposit of 10% was required and could be paid by credit card. The balance could be paid by credit card and UOB cardholders could even pay by interest-free 12 months installment plans.
I politely told the client relationship manager that I didn’t have the money at the moment and wasn’t interested. She was quite persistent and even suggested I just pay the deposit first. I wasn’t going to do that since I won’t be able to finance the remaining 90%. She was pretty disappointed and made a last ditch effort to ask me for referrals. Of course I would not refer any of my friends to a company that I had not fully researched on.
Tomorrow, I will write about some of the things you need to be aware of if you are investing in UK land.
Besides the land investment, there was also a side booth promoting a property City House, Croydon in London. According to the person I spoke to, he was helping some investment fund sell off their units.
1-bedroom units were available for about 215,000 GBP and 2-bedroom units for 250,000 GBP. 12% of the amount would be payable within 28 days, another 13% due at completion (end 2009) and the remaining 75% can be bank financed by Lloyds.
The rental yields are estimated at 5% and if the units are rental out, it would be able to cover the interest payments. It looked interesting to me but being not very inexperienced in this area (other than the fact that I can’t really afford it now), I decided to give it a miss.
[...] mentioned in my previous post on Jardin Smith International Singapore that I will be elaborating more on UK land banking (or strategic land investment). Other than [...]
another timeshare related scam……….
read recruit section of straits time and funny thing is they don’t need any qualifications or experience for sales……
[Reply]
Hi Bonk,
I don’t think they are anything near timeshare.
It’s a different kind of product altogether.
[Reply]
Yep with timeshare you get to use what you’ve bought. With plot investments you just wait.
[Reply]
Dear All,
before you invest in Land banking go to http://www.propertyscam.org.uk
[Reply]
i went to their workshops once at this plaza on scotts, even tho it wasnt for me, i referred some of my richer friends but in the end also got side tracked to buy too. lol i’m pretty happy about it and so are my friends, cos rates are higher than leaving it in your bank or cpf account and plus you wont lose your capital cos land appreciates every year. you’re wrong when you say 5 to 10 years then they can sell only when 60% agreed. its actually 5 to 7 years with planning permission then they sell. the 10 to 15 years part only comes in when they dont get planning approval. and calling it a scam just cos you’re sour cos you didnt get your fill of free food and vouchers is just so rude. but then again this isnt for everyone. if its your life savings you are thinking of investing then better not, but if you wanna make good money and have a little to spare then i think jardin is good. profitable plots is just too dodgy for me.
[Reply]
Hi Lara,
Thank you for your clarification.
CPF monies cannot be used for this kind of investments as they are not regulated by MAS.
The capital is also never protected.
[Reply]
Hi Lara,
Have you done due diligence before parting with your money?
go to http://www.propertyscam.org.uk
Happy researching!
[Reply]
The company sales pitches are sometime verging on the edge of hard selling as told to me by a friends who went to their seminars. And they actually quoted profits as high as 4 times the initial investment at the end of 4 yrs which is pretty ridiculous.
And this is a very young and inexperienced company compared to ones such as walton.
[Reply]
Sophie Reply:
October 4th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Hi Johnny,
For your info, in case your friends didnt gv u the full pic.. the 4 times returns are residential land valuation fr the UK govt. Not figs cooked up by JSI.
[Reply]
Hi,
check with http://www.fsa.gov.uk
don’t know much about Jardine Smith International Best to check with http://www.fsa.gov.uk
[Reply]
Hi,
I recently attended a hotel exhibition by Jardin Smith in Singapore. The whole investment sounds like a good deal to me. But of course, before parting with my money, i did my due diligence and
found out that FSA only regulates companies that are operating in UK. very much like our MAS. I read in our local press that companies like Jardin Smith are not required to be regulated by MAS in Singapore. I checked on the title deed on the UK Government website and ownership is 100% authentic. I suggest you do your checks
And oh, if you’re a true investor, i wouldn’t suggest that you count on propertyscam.org.uk to assist you in your decision making. Very few unbiased and objective comments i found there. Realised that most of the comments there are speculations and without concrete backings. Better check it with the company yourself. Good luck.
[Reply]
Marie Reply:
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Hi,
Recently, I was asked to attend one of Jardin Smith’s seminar. At first after reading all the comments from the various posts a few weeks back, i was a little hesitant. But i decided to keep an open mind when i went. After hearing the presentations by the staff, i feel that some of the comments are very unjustified and prejudiced against JSI.
I would suggest that if you are really interested in investments, you should do your homework and not just limit your mind to the negative comments that are posted on the websites. And unlike what Johnny said, they arent that hard selling. My experience was quite pleasant, in fact, i was impressed with their excellence.
After doing some other relevant checks for myself, i decided to buy a small plot from them. The staff also showed me some of the plans the UK govt has for the land that i am purchasing. It is reasonable, feasible and profitable to invest.
However, land investments, like any other investments, require you to do your checks and homework! So before u have the herd mentality and criticize with others, it would be highly beneficial to yourself to check the accurate details from authorized websites.
[Reply]
I totally agree w what Marie said. I attended their workshop before and was very impressed w their level of professionalism. As a careful investor, i posed all kinds of worst case scenario qns to them. They did NOT at all dodged any of my qns and in fact was v upfront w me and shared step by step hw the risks are being mitigated. Info fr them are all fr UK govt sources too.
I guess any savvy investor would noe that in any form of investment there’re bound to be risk and its unavoidable. That’s why its impt to noe hw the risk is being mitigated (for instance studying the location of the land carefully and noe what are the govt plans involved).
I ran thru the property scam website and had laugh at it. Its so amateurish and a lot of the comments are biased and unfounded. In fact i trust info fr the govt when it comes to land invstmt ..period.
So for any potential land investor out there.. do your homework. study the location, noe its potential, noe what u are in for.
[Reply]
“The staff also showed me some of the plans the UK govt has for the land that i am purchasing. It is reasonable, feasible and profitable to invest.” “Info fr them are all fr UK govt sources too”
Please post your sources or we will suspect you work for Jardine Smith. Do you ? Question. If the Land was zoned for building why would they sell it to you in small plots in Singapore ? With the exception of occasional compulsory purchase for roads etc the process by which land gets approved for building use by the UK Government is called planning permission. Land zoned as green belt or agricultural is very cheap because it rarely gets permission.
You can easily check with the local council in the UK on the status of Land and any prospective purchaser should do that before signing anything. If you would care to post details on the land plot you say you purchased I’d be happy to try and check it out for you from the UK and provide the relevant UK council to contact.
[Reply]
Some Land Banking links including 3 from UK Government on Land Banking. None of these are Property Scam sites. Some are higly reputable newspaper sites. Always independently check the company and land you are dealing with. Be educated on your investments.
UK Consumer Protection Group
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/watch_out/scams/landbanking/
FSA
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/Statements/2007/land_banking.shtml
UK Government News
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=295797&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True
UK Guardian - Top 10 Scams.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/23/scamsandfraud.consumeraffairs1
UK Times - 10 worst property investments ever.
http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2008/06/post.html
UK Observer.
http://www.moneyobserver.com/content/sod%E2%80%99s-law-comes-little-too-late
Real people losing money.
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2035797_finch_land_investment_casualties_stack_up
Even Singapores own Mr Tan Kin Lian.
http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/search?q=land+banking
And a quote on the use of Government quotes.
http://www.cpre.org.uk/filegrab/2the-great-landbanking-carve-up.pdf?ref=2672
“A common feature of nearly all landbanking company websites is an array of quotes from media news stories and the Government, stating that there is a shortage of housing, that household numbers are growing fast, and that more greenfield land will be used for housing in the future. Well known – or once well known – television personalities have been used to talk up the benefits of landbanking”
[Reply]