Background Land investments
'Be careful when buying worthless land'
Land is often seen as a stable investment, because the price of land shows an upward trend. However, with some regularity plots are sold that later turn out to be worth nothing. What exactly is this?
This often concerns small parcels, as can also be seen on the cadastral map at the bottom of this article. Every once in a while Harry Kaspers, board member at VBO Makelaar (agricultural section), comes across people who own such stamps and expect them to be huge. worth a lot to be. "However, if they put the pieces of land up for sale, the value is very disappointing."
Stamps ground
Kaspers is talking about country stamps, which fly over the counter like 'hot cakes'. In 2016 he received a request to urgently put a few plots on the market and to deal with this in a reliable and fair manner. It turned out to be plots with an agricultural destination, which had been bought in the hope that the destination would change and that a nice profit could be made as a result.
"The owner of the land was in a divorce, became unemployed and knocked on the door of the municipality for social assistance benefits. There he received zero on his claim; to be eligible for benefits, he had to sell his property. Hence the urgent need character of the assignment. He was broke," says Kaspers.
Warm ground
However, in this case Kaspers did not proceed with the sale of the plots, because they were scattered throughout the Netherlands. Whole plots of grassland of about 3 hectares were divided into stamps of 1.000 m2† The plots had been marketed as 'warm ground' and sold for gold.
"Unfortunately for the buyer, a change of destination is probably not an issue in the first 100 years. The value of the plots is therefore probably no higher than the agricultural value," says Kaspers. Since these plots of grassland are divided into postage stamps, they are (and will remain) unsaleable for the time being. Kaspers has therefore informed the municipality that the value of the property can be set at €1 for the sake of convenience.
too gullible
"It often happens that the land is presented as an inheritance, but ultimately turns out to be worth little for the same reason." According to the board member, this is sad, but also incredibly naive and stupid. It is therefore wise not to be too gullible when promises are made about warm soil.
An example of a stamp ground, which often turns out to be worth little.
Anne-Jan Doorn
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