Time to buy some mud, rather than sling it.
It seems it’s not just high-end West End apartments that are soaking up foreign Dollar (Euro, Rouble, Yuan etc) but also the English countryside.
The Guardian reports that English farmland prices have trebled in a decade as overseas buyers have moved in – and now average over £6,000 an acre.
In the next five years farmland is expected to rise in value by more than two-thirds.
It’s seen as a safe haven, like gold, but also gives annual returns of 2-3%.
Agricultural land can also be exempt from inheritance tax as long as it's managed as a farm.
You have to look after your land though, wherever it is.
If you have large trees on your property, for example, make sure that they’re pruned regularly to avoid damage to any neighbouring structures.
CMS Cameron Mckenna reports a recent case where a landowner was ordered to pay £150,000 in compensation for damage caused by tree roots to a property that lay some 33 metres from the tree.
Damage is frequently caused by tree roots, particularly in areas of clay soil, and it can be substantial.
Either the roots apply pressure to the subsoil and cause settlement or they cause changes in the subsoil by extracting moisture.
The bigger the tree, the more moisture will be extracted.
Damage can be prevented if the trees are regularly pruned or lopped – in the recent case the court found that the damage would probably have been prevented if the trees had been pruned every four years.
That’s the thing about land; you can’t just stash it in a bank vault and forget about it...but enough about quantitative easing.
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