Profitable Group - Concorde Village
Discussion
Does any one else out here get these adverts on the TV and stands in thier Business Districts?
The Profitable Group (dodgy name) appears to be quite professional, in so much as they were advertisers at the GP, and run regular TV Adverts, including sponsorship on CNN and Bloomberg.
However they seem to be trying to hawke this "Concorde Village, on the outskirts of London" as a fantastic investment!!
One look at the TV Advert tells me its green belt land, and a quick internet surf finds all sorts of bad s
t about them ...
http://www.concordevillage.com/
http://www.propertyscam.org.uk/htdocs/hounslow.htm
Whats worrying is the number of local collegues of mine that are almost tripping over themselves to give these people money....
Is this realy as dodgy as it looks to me??
The Profitable Group (dodgy name) appears to be quite professional, in so much as they were advertisers at the GP, and run regular TV Adverts, including sponsorship on CNN and Bloomberg.
However they seem to be trying to hawke this "Concorde Village, on the outskirts of London" as a fantastic investment!!
One look at the TV Advert tells me its green belt land, and a quick internet surf finds all sorts of bad s
t about them ... http://www.concordevillage.com/
http://www.propertyscam.org.uk/htdocs/hounslow.htm
Whats worrying is the number of local collegues of mine that are almost tripping over themselves to give these people money....
Is this realy as dodgy as it looks to me??
There was a company called Profitable Plots which was heavily advertised as well. I think it has since been wound up in the UK. The Profitable Group looks very similar on the surface, and sprung up after Profitable Plots disappeared. Check out the logos for both :
http://www.landbanking.us/2008/06/03/what-about-pr...
http://profitablegroup.com/
http://www.landbanking.us/2008/06/03/what-about-pr...
http://profitablegroup.com/
This company advertise heavily on the ESPN-STAR Asia Sports channels. I thought it was dodgy when they changed names a while back. They are predicting 200% gains in just a few years. Have they not heard of the recent popular term "credit crunch".
Profitable Group are a Singapore-based global investment company who have ESPN STAR Sports football pundit (and ex-Liverpool football player) Steve McMahon as a Group Commercial Director.
So there you go, a Scouser as a director!
Profitable Group are a Singapore-based global investment company who have ESPN STAR Sports football pundit (and ex-Liverpool football player) Steve McMahon as a Group Commercial Director.
So there you go, a Scouser as a director!
You can see the Profitable Group advert that was running in October 08 on Singapore TV here. This was at the same time the TV stations were running news items on demand for more regulation for financial services ! Nice picture of Big Ben, a union jack, and a field and estimated 250% returns in 3 years. Zero or less chance I would say.
There is a good description on how the business model works in the comments section here. and Wikipedia here..
You arent buying land as the land value is negligible compared to money paid. You are buying a future service. Experience to date in the UK says that service does not get delivered. You wont find that out until the future though so they can make lots of optimistic sales promises without writing anything down. I wonder if the accounting rules in Singapore require you to make future provisions for this kind of speculative investment ?
To quote Jason Stratham in Revolver.
They think it can't be that big ... for so many people to have fallen for it.
Eventually, when the opponent is challenged or questioned, it means the victim's investment and thus his intelligence is questioned, no one can accept that. Not even to themselves.
You should warn your friends but they are unlikely to listen to you or to appreciate the advice.
There is a good description on how the business model works in the comments section here. and Wikipedia here..
You arent buying land as the land value is negligible compared to money paid. You are buying a future service. Experience to date in the UK says that service does not get delivered. You wont find that out until the future though so they can make lots of optimistic sales promises without writing anything down. I wonder if the accounting rules in Singapore require you to make future provisions for this kind of speculative investment ?
To quote Jason Stratham in Revolver.
They think it can't be that big ... for so many people to have fallen for it.
Eventually, when the opponent is challenged or questioned, it means the victim's investment and thus his intelligence is questioned, no one can accept that. Not even to themselves.
You should warn your friends but they are unlikely to listen to you or to appreciate the advice.
Edited by dohcltd on Thursday 18th March 06:53
Nice little quote here from UK House of Commons debates with MP David Heath trying to protect UK citizens from Land Banking. Apparently scams are not illegal in the UK !.
David Heath (Somerton & Frome, Liberal Democrat)
May we have a debate on what I can only call bogus land banks? An internet site is offering 209 so-called building plots in my constituency for up to £18,000 a time in the village of Dean, which comprises about 30 houses. The plots are on agricultural land that will never, ever have planning permission for such development.
I do not think that the offer is illegal at the moment, but it is undoubtedly a scam. May we have a debate on how we can better protect the potential purchasers, who often will not be in this country, but are expatriates hoping to come home and retire
David Heath (Somerton & Frome, Liberal Democrat)
May we have a debate on what I can only call bogus land banks? An internet site is offering 209 so-called building plots in my constituency for up to £18,000 a time in the village of Dean, which comprises about 30 houses. The plots are on agricultural land that will never, ever have planning permission for such development.
I do not think that the offer is illegal at the moment, but it is undoubtedly a scam. May we have a debate on how we can better protect the potential purchasers, who often will not be in this country, but are expatriates hoping to come home and retire
Ej74 said:
These Jokers are back in Suntec with a big display - illustrating the huge profits you can make (or should that be non-existent profits)
And no doubt people are still buying into the deal too ..... i wonder how many people own a "plot of land" in concorde village, and just how big each plut truely is ....
A cost/price/return breakdown on Concorde Village with references here. Tan Kin Lian Blog - Malaysia act against land banking
The original Hounslow sale was 120 Acres and purchased for 3.2M pounds end 2006 at pretty much the peak of the UK property market. It was being sold as 8x8 yard plots according to the concorde village web site = 9070 plots. However they recently upped the price from 5.6K to 8K a plot according to the TV advert. It maybe they increased the size of the plot or more likely were trying to protect margins because of the 30% depreciation in Sterling. Interesting that they were advertising on Singapore TV in UK pounds.
Quoted from the above site
Divide 3.15 Million UKP by 9,000 and you get a raw land value of 350UK pounds per plot.
To get a 250% gain on 5,625UKP investment you need to achieve a net sale price of at least 14,062UKP.
The land value of the plot is still 350 pounds without planning permission. It may be a little less now because of the current UK property bubble bursting but use 350 to be safe.
14,062UKP / 350UKP = 40
The raw value of the land needs to increase by 40 times or 4017% to give a 250% return on your investment in 3 years.
If the new 8,000UKP plots are still the same 64Sq yard size you need 20,000 UKP / 350 UKP = 57 times or 5714 % increase on the land value to get 250%
If you can really get 40 to 57 times increase in the value of land in 3 years why bother flogging to Singaporeans in Suntec city ?
UK Guardian has an item on Profitable Group here
Don't bank on this land for making a profit
This is landbanking - a get-rich-quick scheme that has never delivered except for the promoters, who can multiply their investment in land many times over - £10,000 an acre agricultural land is sold for £100,000 by landbankers.
There is a nice little discussion on Land Banking here (Skeptics UK Land Banking) where the chances of getting any money back on a land bank investment are estimated as between 1 in 3750 to 1 in 100,000.This is due to extremely low conversion rates on green belt and the historic very high failure rate of land banking companies once all the plots are sold.
The original Hounslow sale was 120 Acres and purchased for 3.2M pounds end 2006 at pretty much the peak of the UK property market. It was being sold as 8x8 yard plots according to the concorde village web site = 9070 plots. However they recently upped the price from 5.6K to 8K a plot according to the TV advert. It maybe they increased the size of the plot or more likely were trying to protect margins because of the 30% depreciation in Sterling. Interesting that they were advertising on Singapore TV in UK pounds.
Quoted from the above site
Divide 3.15 Million UKP by 9,000 and you get a raw land value of 350UK pounds per plot.
To get a 250% gain on 5,625UKP investment you need to achieve a net sale price of at least 14,062UKP.
The land value of the plot is still 350 pounds without planning permission. It may be a little less now because of the current UK property bubble bursting but use 350 to be safe.
14,062UKP / 350UKP = 40
The raw value of the land needs to increase by 40 times or 4017% to give a 250% return on your investment in 3 years.
If the new 8,000UKP plots are still the same 64Sq yard size you need 20,000 UKP / 350 UKP = 57 times or 5714 % increase on the land value to get 250%
If you can really get 40 to 57 times increase in the value of land in 3 years why bother flogging to Singaporeans in Suntec city ?
UK Guardian has an item on Profitable Group here
Don't bank on this land for making a profit
This is landbanking - a get-rich-quick scheme that has never delivered except for the promoters, who can multiply their investment in land many times over - £10,000 an acre agricultural land is sold for £100,000 by landbankers.
There is a nice little discussion on Land Banking here (Skeptics UK Land Banking) where the chances of getting any money back on a land bank investment are estimated as between 1 in 3750 to 1 in 100,000.This is due to extremely low conversion rates on green belt and the historic very high failure rate of land banking companies once all the plots are sold.
Apparently Profitable Group are now taking Liverpool FC to Singapore
Liverpool's promoter here is the Strategic Sports Investment arm of the Profitable Group (a Singapore-based global investment company), headed by former Liverpool player Steve McMahon.
Straits Times
It is believed that Singapore-based promoters Strategic Sports Investment, a subsidiary of the Profitable Group, is involved in the talks with Liverpool. Tentative bookings have been made to stage the match at Kallang in mid-July. The 55,000-seater venue had hosted the Reds on two previous occasions.
Last year Profitable Group were supposed to buy Everton and then Newcastle according to the UK and Singapore press both of which later turned out to be completely untrue. Some clever high profile brand association work by someone though with enough rumour being passed around that the normally reliable UK Guardian claimed Profitable Group were looking for complete control of Newcastle.
It all turned out to be completely untrue in the end so throw some large pinches of salt in the direction of a Profitable Group and Liverpool FC relationship until Liverpool FC say something.
Liverpool's promoter here is the Strategic Sports Investment arm of the Profitable Group (a Singapore-based global investment company), headed by former Liverpool player Steve McMahon.
Straits Times
It is believed that Singapore-based promoters Strategic Sports Investment, a subsidiary of the Profitable Group, is involved in the talks with Liverpool. Tentative bookings have been made to stage the match at Kallang in mid-July. The 55,000-seater venue had hosted the Reds on two previous occasions.
Last year Profitable Group were supposed to buy Everton and then Newcastle according to the UK and Singapore press both of which later turned out to be completely untrue. Some clever high profile brand association work by someone though with enough rumour being passed around that the normally reliable UK Guardian claimed Profitable Group were looking for complete control of Newcastle.
It all turned out to be completely untrue in the end so throw some large pinches of salt in the direction of a Profitable Group and Liverpool FC relationship until Liverpool FC say something.
Looks like Hounslow Concorde Village just got renamed to either
Feltham gravel pits or Lower Feltham Lakes depending on which news story you read.
Lower Feltham Lakes will probably sound more exotic in those shopping centre presentations.
http://www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/west-london-new...
Feltham gravel pits or Lower Feltham Lakes depending on which news story you read.
Lower Feltham Lakes will probably sound more exotic in those shopping centre presentations.
http://www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/west-london-new...
Mr Spike
If you are an investment consultant you will like these first two emails. There was a freedom of information request to Hounslow Council on the Concorde Village site in London which has a lot of the emails received and comments by council staff. 2008 appears to be missing but its a good assortment anyway. Here are a few.
Email 1 includes a section which has a salesperson being bawled out by his boss for not closing. (Been there. There must be a standard bking kit all sales managers use)
Email 2 is someone from Singapore asking Hounslow Council if its OK for them to spend 250K pounds ! (Sure dude go ahead......)
Email 3 is Hounslow Council apparently slightly grumpy at saying the same thing for two years. (how many ways can I say I wouldn't without saying it ?)
Email 4 is a guy threatening to kill his relative for lining him up with an investment. (Also been there - nothing like family to sell you things you don't want)
How come bks is censored ? The Sex Pistols proved it is traditional English in 1977 and absolutely the dogs bks :-D
If you are an investment consultant you will like these first two emails. There was a freedom of information request to Hounslow Council on the Concorde Village site in London which has a lot of the emails received and comments by council staff. 2008 appears to be missing but its a good assortment anyway. Here are a few.
Email 1 includes a section which has a salesperson being bawled out by his boss for not closing. (Been there. There must be a standard b
king kit all sales managers use) Email 2 is someone from Singapore asking Hounslow Council if its OK for them to spend 250K pounds ! (Sure dude go ahead......)
Email 3 is Hounslow Council apparently slightly grumpy at saying the same thing for two years. (how many ways can I say I wouldn't without saying it ?)
Email 4 is a guy threatening to kill his relative for lining him up with an investment. (Also been there - nothing like family to sell you things you don't want)
How come b
ks is censored ? The Sex Pistols proved it is traditional English in 1977 and absolutely the dogs bks :-DAfter the UK press finally figured out that Profitable Group might not have the funds to buy Newcastle and have started to raise doubts about their other footballing activities they also seem finally to have latched onto Concorde Village
Scam fears over homes feltham: profit promise to investors despite planning risk
Aug 13 2009 By Ed Saunt , Hounslow Chronicle
A PROPOSED 1,000-home development in Feltham is facing claims it is part of an international property scam.
Hounslow Council has said the project to build on Green Belt land at Lower Feltham Lakes is 'very unlikely' to receive planning permission, yet landowner the Profitable Group - which put in a bid to buy Newcastle United last month - has been luring backers with promises of returns of 250 per cent within three years when the housing is built.
The council has been inundated with queries from worried investors in Brunei, Singapore and Canada, who say they have been told planning permission will be granted imminently and fear they are in danger of losing their money.
The Sale of Countryside Awareness Movement has written to Hounslow Council warning that it believes that 'land-banking' is taking place - the practise of speculating on land that could be developed, which is legal, but which the Land Registry warned investors about earlier this year.
A consultation on the plans for the former gravel pits began last September and the claims made by the Profitable Group that a development proposal has already been submitted have worried residents that the council might be preparing a U-turn on its pledge to protect Green Belt land.
However, in a response to concerns, Simon Hoets, of Hounslow Council's development control service, said the prospects for development were 'extremely poor', that no encouragement had been given to the landowner whatsoever and that 'there is a serious danger that certain opinions and facts are getting distorted by distance'.
Profitable's UK planning consultant, Neil Osborn, said: "This is absolutely not a scam. I can assure you that the information fed to the Far East is completely correct. British planning law is extremely complicated and there is a risk that some things get lost in translation, but there is not a great deal that can be done about that, I'm afraid."
Hounslow Chronicle has followed up with an article with more of the same here
Scam fears over homes feltham: profit promise to investors despite planning risk
Aug 13 2009 By Ed Saunt , Hounslow Chronicle
A PROPOSED 1,000-home development in Feltham is facing claims it is part of an international property scam.
Hounslow Council has said the project to build on Green Belt land at Lower Feltham Lakes is 'very unlikely' to receive planning permission, yet landowner the Profitable Group - which put in a bid to buy Newcastle United last month - has been luring backers with promises of returns of 250 per cent within three years when the housing is built.
The council has been inundated with queries from worried investors in Brunei, Singapore and Canada, who say they have been told planning permission will be granted imminently and fear they are in danger of losing their money.
The Sale of Countryside Awareness Movement has written to Hounslow Council warning that it believes that 'land-banking' is taking place - the practise of speculating on land that could be developed, which is legal, but which the Land Registry warned investors about earlier this year.
A consultation on the plans for the former gravel pits began last September and the claims made by the Profitable Group that a development proposal has already been submitted have worried residents that the council might be preparing a U-turn on its pledge to protect Green Belt land.
However, in a response to concerns, Simon Hoets, of Hounslow Council's development control service, said the prospects for development were 'extremely poor', that no encouragement had been given to the landowner whatsoever and that 'there is a serious danger that certain opinions and facts are getting distorted by distance'.
Profitable's UK planning consultant, Neil Osborn, said: "This is absolutely not a scam. I can assure you that the information fed to the Far East is completely correct. British planning law is extremely complicated and there is a risk that some things get lost in translation, but there is not a great deal that can be done about that, I'm afraid."
Hounslow Chronicle has followed up with an article with more of the same here
The Daily Telegraph just ran a piece on Concorde Village which is all over the web now. This headline from a UK site called planning watch here seems to sum it up.
Feltham Lakes – Concorde Village fiasco hits the headlines
The Original article By David Hencke is here
Green Belt housing scheme promoted by footballers leaves investors in the red
Investors from the Far East have been left without a penny gain in four years after putting money into a “get rich quick” property scheme promoted by two former England football players.
A marketing campaign fronted by Bryan Robson, the former England captain, and Steve McMahon promised a 250 per cent return in three years if a gravel pit near Heathrow airport was developed for housing and leisure.
However, the site is on green belt land where housing development is banned.
While Profitable Group, the Singapore-based property company behind the scheme, has made at least £47 million from the deal, nothing has yet materialised at the site – not even a planning application to build a single house.
The two former footballers, now living in the Far East, used their celebrity status to market the scheme on television across south-east Asia in 2006.
Profitable changed the name of the tract of land from Lower Feltham Lakes to Concorde Village for the purposes of the marketing drive.
But no development can take place unless a planning inspector can be persuaded to overrule the site’s green belt status against the wishes of Hounslow council, the local planning authority, which firmly opposes building there.
A spokesman for the council said: “We would only develop green belt land if there were very special reasons. We see no special reasons for doing so on this site.
Continued......
See the background blog item by David Hencke for a bit more on the subject here
Feltham Lakes – Concorde Village fiasco hits the headlines
The Original article By David Hencke is here
Green Belt housing scheme promoted by footballers leaves investors in the red
Investors from the Far East have been left without a penny gain in four years after putting money into a “get rich quick” property scheme promoted by two former England football players.
A marketing campaign fronted by Bryan Robson, the former England captain, and Steve McMahon promised a 250 per cent return in three years if a gravel pit near Heathrow airport was developed for housing and leisure.
However, the site is on green belt land where housing development is banned.
While Profitable Group, the Singapore-based property company behind the scheme, has made at least £47 million from the deal, nothing has yet materialised at the site – not even a planning application to build a single house.
The two former footballers, now living in the Far East, used their celebrity status to market the scheme on television across south-east Asia in 2006.
Profitable changed the name of the tract of land from Lower Feltham Lakes to Concorde Village for the purposes of the marketing drive.
But no development can take place unless a planning inspector can be persuaded to overrule the site’s green belt status against the wishes of Hounslow council, the local planning authority, which firmly opposes building there.
A spokesman for the council said: “We would only develop green belt land if there were very special reasons. We see no special reasons for doing so on this site.
Continued......
See the background blog item by David Hencke for a bit more on the subject here
DOHCLTD, have to ask, given that it is now evident that Profitable Group are very moody, whats your story with them as its the onlythread you have posted on and you seem to have a lot of info to hand about the company.
ohh and FWIW they are still advertising out here, even one of the Ad Break sponsors on the Grand Prix this year!!!
never was the statement "buyer beware" more apt!
ohh and FWIW they are still advertising out here, even one of the Ad Break sponsors on the Grand Prix this year!!!
never was the statement "buyer beware" more apt!
Gassing Station | Asia | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff