What can you build on half an acre?

dazco

GDB2222 wrote: »

I had a look on Google Maps. This looks like a nice residential area with large detached houses on it. I don't see how you are going to get permission to build in front of the present building line. So, with the house already on it, there's room to squeeze a second one onto the plot next to it. I don't see you getting permission to cover the site.

Possibly, as you say, a smallish block of flats if you knock the existing house down. You'll need to do some careful budgeting, even then. Say you build 6 x 1000 sq ft flats on the site, then building costs = say £600k. Plus say £100k for demolition, planning, architect's fees, etc. Plus say £100k financing/marketing costs. So, just as a guess it'll cost £800k to build this. Plus say £300k/£400k for the value of the existing property, so you're getting up to £200k per flat before the developer has made any profit. How much would nice flats sell for there?

The alternative, of carving off the second plot and selling the existing house, might well maximise your value from the site.

Thank you very much for that, you seem to absolutely right. I would have thought that the cost would have been much lower than £100,000 per apartment. The second plot runs down the right hand side as google Earth looks at it. There is a chance that any building on the new plot cannot be sold seperately from the main building, but we are looking into it.

Sound advice though, thanks.

GDB2222

I was using a building cost of £100 per sq ft, measured on the outside of the building. That's probably fair enough. I'm not sure whether 1000 sq ft per flat is right, though.

neverdespairgirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

I was using a building cost of £100 per sq ft, measured on the outside of the building. That's probably fair enough. I'm not sure whether 1000 sq ft per flat is right, though.

I think our flat is about 1,000 sq feet - 3 beds (not huge), small kitchen, two tiny bathrooms, and a really large living room. So they would be decent sized 3 beds or large 2 beds, I reckon.

Doozergirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

Possibly, as you say, a smallish block of flats if you knock the existing house down. You'll need to do some careful budgeting, even then. Say you build 6 x 1000 sq ft flats on the site, then building costs = say £600k. Plus say £100k for demolition, planning, architect's fees, etc. Plus say £100k financing/marketing costs. So, just as a guess it'll cost £800k to build this. Plus say £300k/£400k for the value of the existing property, so you're getting up to £200k per flat before the developer has made any profit.

It sounds so good but you just made that all up, didn't you

GDB2222

Doozergirl wrote: »

It sounds so good but you just made that all up, didn't you

Well, yes. I'm not a developer, I haven't seen the site (except an aerial photo from google), and I haven't spoken to local planners or builders. The flats might be worth a lot more than 200k; I don't know.

The real point is that it is not sensible to assume that a huge killing can be made by knocking down the existing building and putting several new ones on the site. It's all a matter of simple arithmetic, aided if possible by some increases in house prices during the development process.

Doozergirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

Well, yes. I'm not a developer, I haven't seen the site (except an aerial photo from google), and I haven't spoken to local planners or builders. The flats might be worth a lot more than 200k; I don't know.

The real point is that it is not sensible to assume that a huge killing can be made by knocking down the existing building and putting several new ones on the site. It's all a matter of simple arithmetic, aided if possible by some increases in house prices during the development process.

By the area, they'd be worth a lot less than that actually but I was thinking more about your idea of the costs involved.

Where I live, residential development land was/is priced at about a million pounds an acre. So doing nothing but gaining PP is a good option on it's own. The price of development land in general still has to allow leeway for making a profit so it does relate to the cost of building.

It doesn't cost a developer anywhere near £1000 a metre for new build and flats are even cheaper because groundworks are very expensive so flats reduce the amount of complication and cost compared to square footage.

dazco

Doozergirl wrote: »

By the area, they'd be worth a lot less than that actually but I was thinking more about your idea of the costs involved.

Where I live, residential development land was/is priced at about a million pounds an acre. So doing nothing but gaining PP is a good option on it's own. The price of development land in general still has to allow leeway for making a profit so it does relate to the cost of building.

It doesn't cost a developer anywhere near £1000 a metre for new build and flats are even cheaper because groundworks are very expensive so flats reduce the amount of complication and cost compared to square footage.

It's a very very nice area.

Doozergirl

dazco wrote: »

It's a very very nice area.

I'm sure it is but when you can buy a three bed detached house within 1/4 mile for £200k, the demand for big flats at the same price aren't exactly going to be high.

I've no doubt there's money to be made, just not convinced by anything that GBD was talking about

adr0ck

the view on aboutmyplace is better (birdseye)

http://www.aboutmyplace.co.uk/showmap?id=22625222&type=property&poi=property

is that next door - 4 bed - on for £425k?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-22625222.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

and next door but one - 3 bed - for £285k?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-22611740.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

dazco

adr0ck wrote: »

the view on aboutmyplace is better (birdseye)

http://www.aboutmyplace.co.uk/showmap?id=22625222&type=property&poi=property

is that next door - 4 bed - on for £425k?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-22625222.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

and next door but one - 3 bed - for £285k?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-22611740.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

That does look like the next door house, as you can see my plot is twice as big. It has just been valued at £500,000. without declaring that it has planning permission given.