I'd bet the rural land will almost always be valued higher by someone with a low enough time preference and who is ok with putting in a bit of elbow grease. I guess nowadays there's less of that. 

If I had the capital I'd do it. I much prefer country to city.

Add a small log cabin to a large plot of land (50-100 acres) and you’d still be around $0.10/sq. ft

A loft compared to rural land may be if it doesn't have shelter.

But an enterprising person could vastly outperform the city folk from an ROI  point of view

AskSN

City vs Country

A loft compared to rural land may be if it doesn't have shelter.

But an enterprising person could vastly outperform the city folk from an ROI  point of view