With land prices on the rise in many parts of the world, land investment can produce good medium to long term returns and it can be one of the safest and smartest ways of investing your money, particularly if the land is located in an up and coming area. Land Investment is not a new phenomenon; but it is a relatively recent concept for the public to take on board. Investment in land is a fairly simple and relatively hassle free alternative to buying into the property market and the most striking feature of land investment is that you are investing in a tangible asset which you can readily put into use.

Purchase

Investing in land can be profitable as there is only a limited amount of land and the buyer can really put the price up when he comes to sell. This type of investment, while not producing instant gratification which may be the case with a real estate or home purchase can definitely be extremely lucrative in the long run. Furthermore, unlike a car or piece of machinery, land is unlikely to lose it's value. The time factor and the timing of the purchase can have a great bearing on how much any profit will be. Your financial advisor may generally warn against purchasing land for the independent investor, reasoning that it is, at best, somewhere you should only invest money that you're absolutely sure you won't be requiring anytime soon.

Potential

There can be a great advantage investing in land with no planning permission, as the potential value can increase manifold if and when planning permission for the development of residential land is granted. If you're looking for peace of mind and a relatively stable medium to long term investment plan with the potential to offer excellent returns, then land investment could be just the thing that you're looking for.

Risk

There is a line of thinking that most if not all potential land investors would probably agree on, and that is that undeveloped land is probably the riskiest of all the various types of real estate investment vehicles.

Conclusion

There are a fair few land agents in operation now which means that buying land is not too difficult, and you don't have to limit yourself to your own country, there are some amazing opportunies for great land deals in various countries. From my experience land investment is one of the most lucrative investments available, as if you know what you are doing there is a lot of money to be made.