BUY a piece of land and sell it to property developers later for a tidy profit.
This is the pitch by landbanking companies to potential investors.
In landbanking, a company buys a plot of land, usually in a rural area in another country, subdivides it into smaller plots and sells them to investors.
Once planning permission is given, the value of the land will rise. But like all investments, returns are not guaranteed and could take years to materialise.
Marketing executive Rita Wong, 40, found this out after paying about $30,000 for 4,000 sqm of land in Ontario, Canada.
In 2003, at a friend’s invitation, Madam Wong attended a seminar organised by Walton International, a landbanking company with offices in Canada and Singapore.
She told The New Paper: ‘I was greeted by a salesman who kept telling me that Canadian land was a viable investment as there would always be demand for housing, thanks to immigration.’ Continue reading
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