There is also the 'head fake'. A major corporation mentions that they are planning on expanding. This could be part of the plot or entirely independent of it. Using what might be a minor footnote in a press release as indirect reference people jack up the price of land.

This can be as simple as a land owner posting a 4' by 8' sign announcing the 'future home of ____'. The more official and fancier the sign the better it works. Also helps if get a local bulldozer owner to knock down a few trees and clear some brush. Follow by hammering in some stakes with orange tape on them.

A popular tactic is to send around a guy in a fancy car and suit to ask about buying properties in the area and implying that prices will be multiplying. That always gets people talking. Work an area by deception and inference and you can jack up land prices. Then you turn around and sell your land and make a profit.

If your good you can pull out making money and people will spend themselves into a hole based on the assumption that there will be a large development. Then, once their finances are exhausted and loans come due, people get desperate for cash. At which point you show up and buy their property for less than they wanted before you jacked up the price.

If your really good you can buy up the guys property and add a few thousand so he tells everyone he sold out as part of the fictional original development. Done well the would-be developer sells the original plot for a huge profit and end up owning all the surrounding land.

Wash, rinse, repeat.