In the current bearish stock market conditions, some people will probably be looking at alternative forms of investments. Land banking might be one of those being considered. I have written a few posts on this topic before but thought I will post some updates following recent developments in the UK.

If you are thinking of buying UK land for investments, remember to look at both the upside as well the downside. The thing about alternative investments is that the exit strategy might not be clear should things go wrong.

Just yesterday, I was reviewing some documents released by the administrator of UK Land Investments (UKLI). If you have not been following the story, you can read more about it here: UK Land Investments Administration.

It was a real messy affair with many land owners trying to recover their money after the company was forced to shut down.

One interesting point that I picked up from the transcript of the meeting of creditors was that the current property market in UK was real bad it was very hard for developers to get any sort of financing. As a result, some developers were not even starting construction of projects on their existing land that had planning permission.

Given such conditions, it would appear that any successful planning permission and sellout would likely take many years.

Another thing worth reading for clients of UK Land Investments was an independent analysis of the UK land sold by UK Land Investments. Apparently, many of them had little or no chance of getting planning permission.

Despite all that is happening in UK, the owner of UK Land Investments, Baljinder Chohan, is still continuing his land banking sales in other countries, one of which is Dubai. He operates there under the company name of UK Capital Investments Group (UKCIG).

Dubai’s authorities are currently checking on UKCIG’s activities of selling plots in the UK.

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Following the decision by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of UK to shut down UK Land Investments, Lee Manning and Carlton Siddle of Deloitte & Touche LLP, the appointed Joint Administrators of the company, released a report on their findings a few days ago.

Creditors (including plot owners) of the company are advised to read the report and see what are the options available to them. The report is confidential so I do not wish to reveal too much of the details here.

Just for your information, the sole owner of UKLI is a person by the name of Baljinder Chohan. He has a number of companies in other countries that have similar names to UK Land Investments yet they do not have a common corporate parent. In addition, there were a number of loans by UKLI to these other companies which were made on non-commercial terms.

If you happen to have any dealings with these companies, I would encourage you to do the necessary due diligence before making any sort of commitment.

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On 1st April 2008, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) served a petition to UK Land Investments (UKLI) to cease operations.

The hearing date is Monday, May 26, at the Royal Courts of Justice, known as London Companies Court, when the future of the company will be decided.

You can view a copy of the liquidation gazette here.

Hwever, it seems that the company will still continue to operate outside the UK as UK Land Investments International.

You might have found my blog because you were doing further research on this topic. In any investment (especially non-regulated ones), it pays to do your due diligence before you commit any sum of money.

Successful investing is all about managing your risks and if you do not know what your risks are, you stand a higher chance of losing your hard-earned money.

One approach I take when doing any research on a new unregulated investment product is to search google for that topic with the word “scam” added behind. While there are both truths and lies sprouting on the internet and you would be wise to take things you find with a pinch of salt, the internet is still a good starting point for any research.

If you search “Uk land investment scam” in google, you are likely to find a couple of sites discussing about UK land investments. There is one site which stands out: Property Scam, which is dedicated to discussing everything about UK land investments.

From that site, I found out a few things:

• There are dozens of land investment companies around the world dealing in UK land investment. The list includes:
  • Hambrook & Greenstock
  • Property Spy
  • Land Investment Association
  • Townfield Land Investments Limited
  • English Land Partnership (ELP)
  • European Land Sales Partnership
  • UK Land Investments Group (UKLI)
    • One of their past auditors, Moore Stephens, discharged themselves
    • UKLI respond to Moore Stephens’ resignation
    • Posted misleading claims on their website about their partners
• A few of them have ceased operations and their investors are left holding the land they bought from them.
• So far, there has not been any documented success of planning permission being obtained by these companies.
• This article by BBC mentioned that the plot you buy could have a huge mark-up of 10-100 times.That is how most of the companies has been able to expand so rapidly even though they do not have any success stories yet.

While I cannot ascertain that everything written at Property Scam is true, investing in UK land through a land banking company requires a very long time horizon and returns are not guaranteed. However, the returns are very high if planning permission can be obtained.

If you are considering investing, please do your due diligence on the company you are investing with, and only invest with a company you can trust (and with money you can spare). Good luck.