Land sales are not protected by Financial Services Authority of UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/nov/07/landbanking-investment-scheme

Over the past five years, Guardian Money has warned that, despite taking in tens of millions of pounds from investors, no landbanker has ever delivered the expected profit bonanza that comes with planning permission.

Instead, we have reported how several landbankers have gone bust, including Land Heritage (UK)* and United Land Holdings, leaving buyers with virtually unsellable plots. These investors had no chance of getting their cash back from a compensation scheme, as land sales are not protected by the Financial Services Authority. In 2007 the FSA declared that although it does not regulate land as an investment, "there is a risk that many of these schemes are in breach of the financial regulation regime if they are structured as a 'collective investment scheme'. To operate and promote such a scheme legally, the operators would need to request and obtain authorisation from the FSA, which would then regulate these firms."