Land Investment company defies slump

Intelligent land investments (Ilandi), the Hamilton based company run by entrepeneur Mark Wilson, has announced an upsurge in sales of its land shares following the downturn in the property market. The firm, which claims to be Scotland’s first dedicated land-based investment company, has sold more than £4 million of shares in its Cumbernauld brownfield development in the past two months, after original estimates had put the sale time at 12 months.

The Cumbernauld site is Ilandi’s first investment sold under its Ecoland initiative, which will see the company attach affordable and environmental clauses to land zoned for development and for sale on the open market. Ilandi managing director Wilson, 35, ascribes the upsurge to “people who may previously have invested in the property market now looking at longer term, and more ethical options for their cash”.

Despite widespread suspension of building, Ilandi is confident of selling any land which gets council planning approval. The firm’s first site at Glenboig, North Lanarkshire, goes before planning this month, and if successful will see more than 200 houses built on the land. Wilson said: “The current downturn in the property market has led many developers to put their sites on hold.  Scotland needs 35,000 new homes each year; if devlopment stops for even two years, there will be a massive deficit between the demand and the availability of new homes once the market starts to recover.

“Our land options are all strategic long-term sites and we are working with property developers who are looking past the short-term downturn”. “A site which gains planning approval this year will not be built on until around 2012 and many property developers are already looking into options for the recovery of the property market”.

“There have been periods of downturn in the past, however they have also picked up again. The businesses that survive and even strengthen during these periods are those that plan strategically and are ready for when the markets recover.

Ilandi buys land from the farming community under unique partnership agreements and sells shares in that land to private investors in anticipation that they will make a substantial profit when planning permission is granted. In the future when housebuilders broker a deal for EoLand with Ilandi, affordable and environmentally friendly housing must form part of their plans for the site.

Source - Colin Donald, Sunday herald, Sept 14th