You are about to make one of the largest payments of your life, to someone you may never have met, in a country whose rules you were never taught. The least you are owed is a source that has nothing riding on what you decide. This page sets out how The Mainland earns that trust, and how you can check that it does.
We have nothing to sell you but the checking
The Mainland sells no land, no property and no building services. It takes no commission from anyone who does, and it makes no introductions to lawyers, agents, developers, banks, contractors or surveyors. It makes its money from its own guides, checklists and tools, which you can see on the products page. Whatever you decide about a plot, a builder or a market, we earn the same.
If we ever carry an affiliate link, it will only be for a tool we would use ourselves, such as a money-transfer or software service, never for property, deals or professional services. Every such link will be labelled where it appears.
The six rules every guide follows
- Show the document. Where a guide teaches you to read a document, the aim is to show it, redacted where it must be and annotated always. Describing a document you have never seen is what everyone else does.
- Name the office. Not “the land registry”, but the specific office or portal that runs the check.
- Cite the law by section. When a guide says what the law requires, it names the statute and the section, and links to the text.
- Date everything. Process guides carry the date their sources were last checked. When a fee, form or portal changes, we update the guide and record the change.
- Cost structure, never cost totals. We show you what you will pay for and who sets the price. We do not publish totals, because a published number becomes a false anchor in somebody’s negotiation, and prices move.
- What a wrong answer sounds like. Wherever a person could mislead you, the guide tells you what an evasive or wrong answer sounds like, so you can recognise it when you hear it.
What we will never publish
- A named recommendation of any lawyer, agent, developer, bank, contractor or provider.
- A prediction of returns, yields, profits or earnings.
- An invented statistic, law, fee, timeline, case study or customer story. Where a guide uses a worked example, it says so.
- An attack on a named person, tribe, company or country. We write about behaviours and systems.
Where our facts come from
Process and legal guides are researched from official sources first: government registries, land commissions, statutes and published fee schedules. Each such guide ends with a list of the official sources it relied on, so you can check them yourself. When the only available copy of a document is not on a government website, we say so next to the link.
Statistics are quoted with their source, the year the data was collected and, where it matters, the sample size, including any limits the authors themselves state.
Who reviews what
The Mainland is written and edited by its founder, Michael Mettle. Research and drafting are assisted by AI tools working only from the sources listed on each page. Any statement about what a person may legally own, owe or do, including eligibility, tax and inheritance, and any page that quotes an official fee, is approved by Michael personally before it is published.
Education, not advice
Everything on The Mainland is education. It is not legal, financial or tax advice, and it does not replace a licensed professional in the country concerned. Our job is to make you a competent client of that professional: to know what to ask for, what the answer should look like, and when to walk away. See the full disclaimer.
When we get something wrong
We correct it openly, and we log every correction that changes a fact, on the corrections page. If you have spotted an error, a changed fee or an out-of-date process, tell us. A page that is wrong costs a reader real money, so a correction always takes priority over new content.
Last updated 2 October 2026.