By our economics editors
Aug 18, 2023 at 8:30 AM Update: an hour ago
In a court case in which a land dealer sold pieces of agricultural land to a private individual in a coercive manner, the judge believes that these practices should be subject to more financial supervision. The trade in land is very risky for buyers.
This summary proceedings concerned a person who had bought half a million euros in pieces of agricultural land, according to reports from RTL News. Despite the fact that he already had doubts, the company Grondzaken Nederland pushed through the sale. In the end, the buyer was able to reverse the deal through his lawyers. Land affairs The Netherlands tried to demand payment through the courts, but the court did not agree.
The judge points in the pronunciation precisely on the dangers of speculative land trading. Buyers are promised great investment opportunities if former agricultural land becomes suitable for housing, because land for housing is worth more than an empty meadow.
Buyers pay tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of euros for this. Earlier research by the Land Registry showed that, of the 17,000 pieces of land that have been sold in this way in recent years, no housing has been built anywhere.
In the high-risk land trade, it is often promised that buyers can easily leave their land again. That later turns out to be more difficult or it is accompanied by major losses. In the ruling, the judge denounced that a deal is often concluded orally in the land trade, as in this case. All warnings in brochures are thus set aside.
The court does not think that buyers should pay more attention
In its ruling, the court finds that the land trade should come under the financial supervision of the AFM in order to better protect buyers. That has always been the case, but traders can avoid this by including a provision in the purchase that the buyer is responsible for the management of his piece of land. That makes the piece of land no longer an investment object.
He also refers to a letter to the House of Representatives from outgoing ministers Sigrid Kaag (Finance) and Hugo de Jonge (Housing) who suggested better supervision in July of this year. They also promise to investigate how they can counter speculative land trading.
Bert van Mieghem of Wybenga Advocaten, who assists many victims of land trading, mentions RTL News the court’s rulings are a tipping point. “In the past, judges mainly ruled that the buyers themselves should have paid more attention. Now the judge states that the views on land trade in politics and in society are changing.”
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2023-08-18 06:30:58
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