Please be careful of companies offering to sell plots of 'land for development' which has not got planning permission.

They buy so called greenfield land - it may even be a field. There is no planning permission to build, and the field is agricultural land. But they split it up into parcels the size of a building plot, and sell them separately.

You could be left waiting for years for planning permission to be materialise - and it may never be granted at all. So you will have paid thousands of pounds for a plot of land on a totally speculative basis.

And if you need to sell it in the years to come, how easy will that be?

There is no guarantee that you can sell it back at anything like the price you paid for it. The Guardian accuses a salesperson at one of these companies of making false promises that people can get their money back if anything goes wrong.

So this speculation is

• Dependant on planning permission - no one can forecast this
   
• Difficult to sell if you decide you need the money.

Personally I wouldn't tie up thousands of pounds in a single investment with these sorts of risks.

If you are offered a chance to buy a building plot, and you want to consider it, always check the position on planning permission yourself. This means talking to the local authority yourself.

Don't take a chance!