What country do they proposing investing money into land?
If its Ireland or UK or most of the western world then your friend will be looking at a 25% fall on their 'investment' over the last or next year.
The only land currently going up in value that I know around here is UK agricultural land which is up from around £3-4k/acre to £5-8/k an acre.
Development land is down around 20-30% mirroring the property price falls and looks set to continue to fall over the next few years as property prices do.
[broken link removed]
Prices of urban development land plummet across country
03 October 2008
The value of urban development land outside of London has fallen by a third in the past year, according to research by property consultant Knight Frank.
The Yorkshire and Humberside region has been most affected by the downturn, with brownfield sites in the worth now half of their value in September 2007. North-west England followed closely behind, with a 41% fall in land value.
London has resisted the worst effects, with inner-city prices falling by 0%, whereas areas in outer London have fallen 15%.
Knight Frank said the increasing presence in the market of housing associations and speculators will help to prevent a repeat of such sharp falls in land value over the next year.