Regional land

We are in no way associated with Regional Land just dissatified customers...
All information contained in this site is true to the best of our knowledge. While we endevour to ensure correctness, errors do sometimes creep in.

While we can't categorically say that regionalland are a scam or fraudulent company, they have many are the markings of such a land banking scam. The plot you purchased is generally agricultural land, with no planning permission and in the case of the purchaser in Tony Hetherington's column would never get planning permission as the land is in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Our advice is think twice before dealing with such a company.

Employees

Proprietor: James Maynard
Sales guys: Thomas Gold, Harry Nelson, Henry, George Hackett

The Business

The business is NOT limited.

The website

Their website is *broken*, probably on purpose. If you try to sign up for an account, it intentionally tells you to call them to discuss the deals, or email your name, email and phone number. This is an obvious selling ploy.

Website domain registration

    Domain name:
        regionalland.co.uk

    Registrant:
        J M

    Trading as: 
        Regional Land

    Registrant type:
        UK Sole Trader

    Registrant's address:
        29 Floor
        25 Canada Square
        London
        UK
        E14 5LQ
        United Kingdom

    Registrar:
        Fasthosts Internet Ltd [Tag = FASTHOSTS]
        URL: http://www.fasthosts.co.uk

    Relevant dates:
        Registered on: 04-Feb-2009
        Renewal date:  04-Feb-2011

    Registration status:
        Registered until renewal date.

    Name servers:
        ns1.livedns.co.uk         213.171.192.250
        ns2.livedns.co.uk         213.171.193.250
        ns3.livedns.co.uk

    WHOIS lookup made at 12:34:21 15-Apr-2010																				

The domain points to two servers:

regionalland.co.uk.	43200	IN	A	213.171.218.136
www.regionalland.co.uk.	43200	IN	A	213.171.218.136
regionalland.co.uk.	43200	IN	MX	5 mailserver.regionalland.co.uk.
mailserver.regionalland.co.uk. 43181 IN	A	213.171.216.66

inetnum:      213.171.218.0 - 213.171.219.255
netname:      FASTHOSTS-UK-NETWORK

If we see what the reverse dns for these servers are:

66.216.171.213.in-addr.arpa	name = mail213-171-216-66.livemail.co.uk.
136.218.171.213.in-addr.arpa	name = server213-171-218-136.livedns.org.uk.

we find that either they are using the managed (shared) service from fast hosts or that they couldn't be bothered to set it correctly. My bet would be on the first one.

Phone number

0800 917 2099 is allocated to BT. As such it is probably a line provided by Regus.

Ofcom record for range
"8009","17","","Allocated",,"","BT","Freephone Numbers","10 Digit Numbers","02/1998"

Their Bank

They bank through the Canary Wharf branch of Natwest. However, according to our research the account name is 'Countrywide Land' not 'Regional Land' as one would expect. A google search for countrywide land reveals another site very similar to the regional land site. A quick shuffle through the info for this related company.

Their sales technique

As reported on fool.co.uk, they cold call people in the correct demographic ranges that are probably thinking about their retirement. These people are often not 100% up to date with modern contract law or finances and a 30% increase on their capital sounds a very good deal (see below for a quick analysis).

One thing that flags up in my mind is that they will offer a discount if you buy more than one plot. This seems odd if the land is such a steal in the first place.

Premises

They operate from Regus managed office facilities at

Regional Land, 29th Floor, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DY
.

Their Proposal

They have some (various plots) of land that are earmarked for development (by themselves). They have no planning permission at the time of selling to you. The eventual aim is to sell to a big developer and get some money back.

They quote figures of 20-30% over between 1.5 to 5 years or more. There are no guarentees.

Lets quickly analyse the deal.

percent2 years5 years7 years
20%1.0901.0371.026
24%1.1141.0441.031
30%1.1401.0541.038

Best case, they will be able to get 30% (or more) over 2 years (or less), which does give 14% interest per year. This is pretty good in todays financial climate. However, if they only manage 20% over 5 years then this is only 3.7%, hardly competitive...

As I said earlier, there are also *NO GUARENTEES* if we fall back into recession, or a new government doesn't want to build in the south-east quite as much then you may be stuck with land that isn't worth much to anyone else. If it is worth anything in the first place. (see new note at the top of page for our opinion)

Backing Out

Put simply, get yourself a good contract lawyer. They will attempt, and have, to drag their feet for as long as possible in the vague hope you will change your mind and they will be getting interest on *your* money during this period.

(I'm not a lawyer) As with most contracts, the law states that if they have spent resources in preparing or doing work on your behalf, they charge reasonable expenses. However, as they have several hundred plots all mostly identical, their legal fees shouldn't be too excessive. (but who can tell without going through with it?)

To contact the owner of this site, please use the following email address : support -at- regional-land.com