Help! Land purchase query!
Discussion
Any Surveyors or Estate Agents in the Pistonhead House?
Any guesstimates welcomed to the following poser: My next door neighbour has placed his house on the market. It's a large house with plenty of garden and a barn/outbuilding that is close to our back garden. Behind this barn thingy is a rectangular piece of land which our neighbour has offered to us for sale. It's overgrown with eight foot high brambles etc and he has never used it for anything. It is about 37 sq m. It could only be sold to us as we back onto a school. It would increase our garden quite nicely at a stroke!
Thing is: what's it worth? £500, £1500? Anyone got a clue. If it was a building plot then obviously depending on location you could work out a value per sq metre. But it's never going to be built on and could only be sold to us. It will not affect the price of his house – he won't miss this little bit.
The buyer would normally cover the legal side of things for both sides, (about £500), and that's fine. He has intimated he would like us to make an offer if we are interested and we are. You could argue that as we could be the only buyers, it's only worth what we are prepared to pay but I'm anxious not to take the pi55 or pay through the nose ...
Any guidance appreciated.
Any guesstimates welcomed to the following poser: My next door neighbour has placed his house on the market. It's a large house with plenty of garden and a barn/outbuilding that is close to our back garden. Behind this barn thingy is a rectangular piece of land which our neighbour has offered to us for sale. It's overgrown with eight foot high brambles etc and he has never used it for anything. It is about 37 sq m. It could only be sold to us as we back onto a school. It would increase our garden quite nicely at a stroke!
Thing is: what's it worth? £500, £1500? Anyone got a clue. If it was a building plot then obviously depending on location you could work out a value per sq metre. But it's never going to be built on and could only be sold to us. It will not affect the price of his house – he won't miss this little bit.
The buyer would normally cover the legal side of things for both sides, (about £500), and that's fine. He has intimated he would like us to make an offer if we are interested and we are. You could argue that as we could be the only buyers, it's only worth what we are prepared to pay but I'm anxious not to take the pi55 or pay through the nose ...
Any guidance appreciated.
Good agricultural land is worth about £2-3K per acre.... not that that helps you tho! 
Basically you have to think about what its worth to you - is it going to add substantially to the value of your property? If it was to add £10k to your place, then your neighbour is likely to know that and have a value in mind. Conversely, if he sells to you, how much value does it take from his property - if its negligable either way, then you just have to think what you'd like to get if it was the other way round and offer accordingly.
Personally I'd've thought that if you offer to cover the legal expenses plus about £500, that should do it nicely... But I don't know your area etc.... all IMHO of course.
Basically you have to think about what its worth to you - is it going to add substantially to the value of your property? If it was to add £10k to your place, then your neighbour is likely to know that and have a value in mind. Conversely, if he sells to you, how much value does it take from his property - if its negligable either way, then you just have to think what you'd like to get if it was the other way round and offer accordingly.
Personally I'd've thought that if you offer to cover the legal expenses plus about £500, that should do it nicely... But I don't know your area etc.... all IMHO of course.
One of my partners at work (he's a surveyor....I'm not) has just done what you are proposing at his house in Bishops Stortford. Not a million miles away from you judging by your profile. Unfortunately, he is away 'til the end of next week and I don't remember the figures. If it can wait, email my profile and I'll get the details. Meanwhile, the big agents in your area are Bidwells (01223 841841) and Januarys (01223 315716).
Cheers
David
Cheers
David
Even tho it's only 37sqm I would be insulted if someone offered me £500 for it. If it'll add a chunk to your garden then it's going to be worth far more than that to your house price. I'd have thought is was certainlt worth a grand or so at least. (remember, even tho it isn't pasture land it's still worth lots more cos of the location - an acre field in the middle of nowhere may indeed only be worth £2-3k but when it's next to your house and adds that to your garden it's suddenly worth a bucket load more)
Better get planning on my 10 acres in the middle of nowhere them!!! Maclaren F1 here we come!!!!
Seriously, I went through this exercise with my next door neighbour when I lived in Chobham, Surrey. He had his house on the market for £600K which included a long garden sub-divided by a stream (same as mine garden not value of house!!), I asked him if he would be interested in selling the back part (about 200sq metres) to make mine an L-shaped garden and he said no, even though we were talking about £10K-£20K and I would let him put a covenant on it such that he got paid a further sum if ever it was built on (unlikely as access was tricky and bordered green belt). He got an offer for £550K for the house but wasn't prepared to sell the whole garden for that (ie he would keep the back bit), purchaser pulled out, eventually he had to sell the whole lot for £520K (Greed knows no bounds).
Unless you are desperate for this piece of land (what percentage would it increase your garden by? and are you going to stay there long term?) then it all sounds like a lot of shag and hassle to me.
davidy
Seriously, I went through this exercise with my next door neighbour when I lived in Chobham, Surrey. He had his house on the market for £600K which included a long garden sub-divided by a stream (same as mine garden not value of house!!), I asked him if he would be interested in selling the back part (about 200sq metres) to make mine an L-shaped garden and he said no, even though we were talking about £10K-£20K and I would let him put a covenant on it such that he got paid a further sum if ever it was built on (unlikely as access was tricky and bordered green belt). He got an offer for £550K for the house but wasn't prepared to sell the whole garden for that (ie he would keep the back bit), purchaser pulled out, eventually he had to sell the whole lot for £520K (Greed knows no bounds).
Unless you are desperate for this piece of land (what percentage would it increase your garden by? and are you going to stay there long term?) then it all sounds like a lot of shag and hassle to me.
davidy
Location, location and location.
See this cambridgshire site for real world examples.
www.grounds.co.uk/develop.html
As a general rule, the value of land is dependent on location and its planning permission status. Some land will never be allowed to be developed (typically green belt) and is 2 or 3k an acre.
A 0.5 acre plot in Cambridge with PP for a 4 bed house is about 50k. Without planning permission it would be about a quarter of that.
In Windsor etc a 0.5 acre plot with PP will be half a million.
So, give your neighbour a grand or get him to email me and I'll buy it
Rgds
Domster
See this cambridgshire site for real world examples.
www.grounds.co.uk/develop.html
As a general rule, the value of land is dependent on location and its planning permission status. Some land will never be allowed to be developed (typically green belt) and is 2 or 3k an acre.
A 0.5 acre plot in Cambridge with PP for a 4 bed house is about 50k. Without planning permission it would be about a quarter of that.
In Windsor etc a 0.5 acre plot with PP will be half a million.
So, give your neighbour a grand or get him to email me and I'll buy it
Rgds
Domster
The Land Registry should be able to tell you which piece of land belongs to whom, but it may take several seraches to find out, either you can do it yourself or get a surveyor to do it on your behalf. When I had a boundary dispute with a by-way ajacent to my property, I employed a surveyor to measure my propertry and xref against the land resistry docs, he also did a search with the local council on the by-way and they provided him with the references of all the land registry docs that were affected by the by-way.
Remember though that the lines on the land registry maps are several feet wide and that boundaries usually identified by establishment and not by measurements taken from the land registry docs.
davidy
Remember though that the lines on the land registry maps are several feet wide and that boundaries usually identified by establishment and not by measurements taken from the land registry docs.
davidy
quote:
Keep us informed how you get on! I have about a 100sq m patch next to my house that I'm trying to buy. Unfortunately, I don't know who it belongs to. Does anybody know how I can find out?
Do the thing with the Land Registry if this comes up zero advertise for the owner in the local paper and with a notice on the land. If there is no response after a "reasonable time" (ask your solicitor how long this is) do what you want with the land, you can even build on it(with planning permission) and to safeguard yourself against the owner coming up and claiming it you can get insurance to cover "defective title", the premium's reasonable.
I'm a surveyor involved in buying & selling a variety of sites at the moment (housing, supermarkets, prisons, whatever we can get involved in), so here's a few words of wisdom:
1. Ultimately, the appropriate price is going to come down to what you can agree with your neighbour. I would always start off low and negoiate up. However, having said that, you first offer should not be too outrageous, otherwise you risking just looking stupid and greedy.
2. What it will be worth to you is obviously a function of what value it might add to your house. I'm not an expert in that part of the world, but you've probably got your own thoughts on what it might add. Incidentally, although you say that the land could only be sold to you, are you absolutely sure that it couldn't be consumed into another site, the school for example? This may have an effect on value if the vendor is canny enough. Again, it depends on how well you know your neighbour.
3. As far as planning permission is concerned, this is the single biggest factor in adding value to land. As somebody pointed out earlier, agricultural land values are a good starting point, although if I was acting for the vendor, I'd be insisting that it was worth much more than agri value if it was a garden.
30-odd square metres is obviously too small to build a house on, but is there a chance that your neighbour (with his extensive gardens) could erect another house in the grounds, which would incorporate this piece of land? It's been done before, and on sites that are pretty tight to start with. A good place to start is your Council's Local Plan or UDP. You'll be able to see whether or not the site is zoned for anything (probably not), what the sites around are zoned for, and whether or not there is a policy supporting infill houses.
Bottom line: Work out what it's worth to you, work out what you can afford, make your neighbour a low but sensible offer, and see what he says.....If he comes back and asks for more money, groan and protest - people are often more gullible than you might think.
If you need any more info on the process, email me.
1. Ultimately, the appropriate price is going to come down to what you can agree with your neighbour. I would always start off low and negoiate up. However, having said that, you first offer should not be too outrageous, otherwise you risking just looking stupid and greedy.
2. What it will be worth to you is obviously a function of what value it might add to your house. I'm not an expert in that part of the world, but you've probably got your own thoughts on what it might add. Incidentally, although you say that the land could only be sold to you, are you absolutely sure that it couldn't be consumed into another site, the school for example? This may have an effect on value if the vendor is canny enough. Again, it depends on how well you know your neighbour.
3. As far as planning permission is concerned, this is the single biggest factor in adding value to land. As somebody pointed out earlier, agricultural land values are a good starting point, although if I was acting for the vendor, I'd be insisting that it was worth much more than agri value if it was a garden.
30-odd square metres is obviously too small to build a house on, but is there a chance that your neighbour (with his extensive gardens) could erect another house in the grounds, which would incorporate this piece of land? It's been done before, and on sites that are pretty tight to start with. A good place to start is your Council's Local Plan or UDP. You'll be able to see whether or not the site is zoned for anything (probably not), what the sites around are zoned for, and whether or not there is a policy supporting infill houses.
Bottom line: Work out what it's worth to you, work out what you can afford, make your neighbour a low but sensible offer, and see what he says.....If he comes back and asks for more money, groan and protest - people are often more gullible than you might think.
If you need any more info on the process, email me.
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff