Why should I invest in Faraway Country and not quite closer, f.i. in Holland?
Forest Returns, which initiated the hacienda, built up a lot of expertise with the development of ‘landgoederen’ (country estates). This happened in close coorporation with Drs. Maarten Mortier of More Trees Consultancy in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. Examples: Landgoed De Kromte (province of Groningen), Landgoed Sparrendreef (province of Brabant), Landgoed Heidehof (province of Drenthe). On the other hand, Forest Returns had an office on a country estate itself for many years: Landgoed Heidestein in Driebergen-Rijsenberg (province of Utrecht). Good relations have been built up with other organizations and persons, living and working on country estates in The Netherlands, e.g. with the managing director of ‘Utrechts Landschap’, Ing. Henk Lugtmeijer at Landgoed Oostbroek. Based on our extensive knowledge and experience we conclude that in The Netherlands:
- there is a little offer of interesting and promising country estates,
- licences for solid and sound utilization are hard to get from the bureaucratic authorities,
- like many other European countries Dutch country life is ‘overruled’
- even our experienced 11-step program will take you at least 20 to 24 months to be realised,
- exploitation costs of the estates are relatively high, revenues are relatively low,
- so the Return of Investment is therefore relatively poor,
- the effective Return of Investment is almost completely dependant of governmental subsidies,
- unfortunately it has been proved that Dutch authorities are not always to be trusted,
- the concrete cash flow based on purely governmental subsidies remains a risk factor,
- it is difficult to create a tripod spreading of risk: sustainable forestry, hospitality & aqua culture.