As investment, I bought this, instead of stocks. Any ideas on what to do with it?
Location:
- 75km (1hr) to a big international airport. Airport has direct flights to most EU capitals (2-4hr flights)
- 50km to city center
- 25km from nearest large residential area (500,000+ population)
- 5km from massive organized industrial area (government supports factories here)
- 35km from a rich residential area
- 1km away from the village (its old and mostly depopulated) and animal husbandry area
Access:
- There is public transportation, but one has to walk 1.5km after leaving the bus.
- There is no direct road access to the land. You have to walk like 200m after leaving your car.
- 1km road to here is non-asphalt and its a bit bumpy ride. When it rains, it gets bad here. It rains rarely
It is quite peaceful and quiet there. You can hear interesting bird sounds sometimes. You see no buildings, no cars and no humans anywhere near you when you’re there, which feels great imo. You notice the air quality after you leave your car. I personally absolutely would want to live here for a while
Ideas
- Trying to clarify this rn, but I think I can make $120-160/yr/decare from leasing the land to a farmer. Land is 25 decares
- “Unique co-living opportunity with vegan food & yoga sessions” In other words, remote work / digital nomad village for people who want to work REALLY remotely :) I’d have to arrange electricity (solar panels and powerbanks), internet, toilet, shower, water, tents, mattresses/pillows/sheets, food, drinking water. (Though I don’t know what people will do when they’re bored here? Any ideas? Meditation would get boring after some point)
- Sadly location isn’t touristic, but it is 1hr flight away from extremely touristic areas. One of those areas, a city, was the most visited city in the world a few years ago.
- I’ve met a few volunteers and they seemed quite willing to volunteer for whatever I decide to do here (if I do anything). For those unfamiliar: WWOOF and Workaway
Also- Any suggestions on where I should ask this question on the internet?
Ideas 1, 2, and 4 could come together with a permaculture food forest/farm. First task would be to cover crop the land to protect from soil loss and start replenishing some nutrients. Then, you have some time to make a good, phased plan of how you’d want to develop it.
Talk to experts and professionals whichever direction you take. They’ll often save you much more than they cost.
If you would like to live there someday I would recommend that as your goal. I would recommend you start doing some research on permaculture which is about building wholly sustainability. Part of this sustainability is financial and piecewise building and investment. So if you want to build and live on this one day you will need the money for it.
So start with leasing the land for at least 1 year to get some cash and for you to better understand where you might want to build a structure and what you need. This allows you to plan and see what part would fit a dwelling the best. This also lets you figure out what you need for this house (i.e. water, electricity, waste removal etc.) as well as figure out how this investment can make money for you. Start small and build modularly. Your dwelling may start on as shack or even a place to set up a tent and grow larger. Same with whatever you end up doing with the land.
Permaculture talks about building food forests which are sustainable year round sources of food, goods or materials. Some of which you can sell or use yourself. These are typically perennial plants, vines and trees which all grow off each other and make a beautiful space. This can be your space for “remote working” either for yourself or visitors.
While planning on starting on this you can continue to lease your land to farmers as you slowly take it over yourself for your bigger vision. This is suppose to be small, slow but sustainable growth to your final vision.
Plant something ASAP on that naked land or it will all be carried away by rain and wind.
Looks like someone was farming it before, OP should contact them first since they will know about the potential and problems. Maybe make a percentage-of-profits deal rather than a lease. The timing is good for a crop, if they move quickly.
Or rewild it with native plants. Maybe some young trees on the windward edge, and seeds for a meadow
Plant some dang trees for starters, unless it’s only going to be land used for farming.
At least a wind block on the edges
I vote for the dang trees. I like trees.
Ain’t nobody speaking for them dang trees so lend a hand and give em a voice.
Even then, dynamic agroforestry would be nice.
For now? Lease as much of that land as you can. Cover crop the rest. You do not want bare, tilled soil sitting there for a year+ as you figure out bigger plans.
How close are you to high voltage transmission lines? This might be good for an commercial sized solar farm.
There’s a solar farm 1km away. I heard here it would require like $1m of investment and it pays for itself in 7 years but that’s above my pay grade AFAIK
YMMV. We’ve got a local solar farm & the operation has gone belly-up, changed hands twice. It’s got to be on its third investor/owner. Also depends on the quality of your build & your local weather; that solar field isn’t even fully operational yet. Got hit by a massive hail storm maybe almost 2 years ago, it had to have smashed a couple hundred solar panels.
If you’re interested in it, I’d be very careful. Insure everything. Ask everybody, people in the industry if possible.
you wouldn’t pay for it all up front yourself… you’d set up a business and find an investor to provide the money you’d need. It’s a pretty easy sell for an investor as it’s a predictable money printing machine.
I mean…
So do 1/10th of that. 100k pays for itself in 7 years? Still have 9/10 of your land to play with.
Just a thought. turnkey operations are geist for land ownership.
Sounds like it’d be relatively easy to get a loan or investor with that kind of ROI. Seven years is nothing if it’s consistent and safe.
Is there a reason you’d have to go all-in, rather than starting with just a couple dozen panels first?
There’s no natural disasters here but I’d have to have political connections and be rich if I wanted to do something like this without getting hurt in this country. I rather have less to lose and do something more modest
No answer here, just wanted to say you inadvertently wrote one of the most interesting geolocation challenges I’ve seen.
Are you interested in helping with this challenge? :D
I might try finding it later but still no idea what to do with the field, sorry :p
Why is the village depopulated, if there’s a huge industrial zone nearby presumably with lots of employees? I was thinking workers might want to buy or rent low cost housing near their workplace if the land is zoned for it and you could get electric and a well, then build some simple small housing. But if they’re not buying in the village, might not be a great idea unless there’s something wrong or lacking with available properties in the village.
Did you ever see the movie Holes (2003)?
Are you suggesting they might have a no good dirty rotten pig stealing great great grandfather?
You bought a bunch of land with no plan for it??
It looks like it’s been farmed recently. I don’t know what the growing season there is, you might be too late to start this year, but if you can lease it to a farmer for this season that at least has the land be productive while you figure out your longer-term plan. That way you can put plans in place to start work when the growing season is finished.
You bought a bunch of land with no plan for it??
It is common in this country to invest in land. It would have been better to invest in US tech stocks but I was young and not well informed
Any thoughts on figuring out longer-term plan?
Actually, you might have dodged a bullet with those tech stocks.
If I had this land, I’d grow food.
With all the rage about digital detox trips you could probably get people to grow food for you while paying you for the opportunity, if the marketing is done right.
Holiday in Cambodia but unironically. Loves me some chorin’
get people to [ …do XY]
Doesn’t work unless they can drive right into it with their small cars.
Of course it does. The guided meditative walk is essential as every step helps you leave the toxicity of digital life behind and prepares you to open yourself up to the present.
Hey wanna be my marketer? :D
You wouldn’t want that and I wouldn’t want that. Trust me. :D
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MMM, field lobsters
As in subsistence farming or trying to bring food to market? If the former, it will be a hard path, but possible.
OP is not in the USA
If the latter, have you seen what is happening in the current food markets? For produce (quick spoilage) other nations are rejecting our produce either because of tariffs or because of retaliatory tariffs. For commodity grains like corn and soybeans, previous giant consumers like USAID, USDA, and other agencies are being cut or destroyed entirely meaning there will be a glut of production on the market for some time. Couple that with visa restrictions/deportations, the price of labor will increase substantially. Food prices are going to crater for a time because of this, and some farmers will go out of business. Those that survive will increase prices to cover all of the new expenses, but they won’t be earning more profit from their work.OP seems to be in Europe, so I’m not sure how much of your second point applies.
You’re right. I didn’t pick up on that. Thanks for that correction.
Does that apply in Europe? OP says most European capitals have direct flights, that take 2-4 hours, so that probably puts this somewhere in Europe.
Does leasing the land pay enough to make it worthwhile? Gives you time to think.
If it’s fertile land you should probably use it, or lease it, to grow food.
Farming is not easy. Until you learnt to be good at it you’ll put in a lot of hours into making not much money after costs have been paid.
Leasing it to a farmer seems like the obvious choice. I’m not sure digital nomads would be all that interested in working in the middle of a field.
I’d love to see land like this returning to nature with native vegetation, but that would take a really long time and doesn’t come with an obvious path to making a profit. Unless you sell it to developers for a higher price in a few years, of course.
Create a startup in reasearch and development of fully autonomous robotic electrical helicopters with swappable batteries and shiny plush seats for the passengers etc.pp. Collect huge venture capital for it.
Don’t forget to brag about your $1 salary!
Go broke after 3 years with a shrug.
Rent that land for some nice money to your startup as a test airfield.
/s
