Selling off Garden Land

Debt_Free_Chick

My view on price is a minimum of the loss in value of your property up to a maximum of the extra value it would add to their properties - each i.e. add the value increase for each neighbour.

They should not expect to get it for less than the value it would add as ..... well, that is the value Although, granted, it will only be a surveyor's/EA's opinion as the acid test is what a buyer would pay. But as they're not currently selling, the "experts" view is all you have. Suggest three valuations and take the average.

Debt_Free_Chick

Mr_Nimoy wrote: »

I suppose then that whatever price I ask for (within reason) it will be take it or leave it. I have found out exactly what price the house plots were sold for and the area of the plots. A calculation based on this would make price each of my garden plots at around £17000. Though this does seem very high.

But it sounds as though that approach is based on the value of a plot of land with PP for a dwelling, which is not what you're selling

moggylover

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

But it sounds as though that approach is based on the value of a plot of land with PP for a dwelling, which is not what you're selling

Just what I was going to say! Op - you are not selling a plot - you are merely selling a piece of garden (especially if you go with the covenant) and the only reasonable way of working a "price" for this out is to work out the area of the land as a fraction of an acre, and then take the price of an acre of reasonable agricultural land, and that gives you a rough idea of the basic price. Then you can add some for the "added value" on their houses, but, tbh, I really don't think an extra 24' is going to make that a huge amount, especially in the current market.:o

Mr_Nimoy

I really don't think an extra 24' is going to make that a huge amount, especially in the current market.:o

Ihave to disagree here. The ratio of house floor area to plot area is very high. The owners have opted to build large houses with small gardens. The additional space would give them reasonable sized gardens - and this would surely be a positive, were they ever to sell the properties. I have already used the agricultural land sale formula and come up with a grand total of £650 !!

Like I said earlier. It would be nice to be able to finance the home improvements from the sale of the land. However; there is ample equity in my own property and if this means drawing down sufficient to cover the costs of improvement, then so be it. I am certainly not giving the land away.

moggylover

Mr_Nimoy wrote: »

Ihave to disagree here. The ratio of house floor area to plot area is very high. The owners have opted to build large houses with small gardens. The additional space would give them reasonable sized gardens - and this would surely be a positive, were they ever to sell the properties. I have already used the agricultural land sale formula and come up with a grand total of £650 !!

Like I said earlier. It would be nice to be able to finance the home improvements from the sale of the land. However; there is ample equity in my own property and if this means drawing down sufficient to cover the costs of improvement, then so be it. I am certainly not giving the land away.

It might be "nice" to be able to finance the home improvements from the sale: but (and I am not trying to be insulting here) it is probably rather unrealistic: especially with land and house prices dropping daily.

Had you said a couple of thousand pounds per piece (or maybe even five thousand each piece) it might have sounded realistic: but it would still only amount to a small/manageable garden by the sound of it and in real estate terms a house either has a small/manageable garden or a large garden and a large garden is probably more like 80 - 100 ft.

It might possibly make the houses easier to sell than a comparably priced house with a bit less ground, but (as I found myself) it will not actually make an appreciable difference to the value unless it makes a small garden into a large garden (my own experience came with selling plots and they varied very little in price with a larger area than the smaller one in the end).

However, your neighbours may think otherwise - or you may come up with another fair way of valuing it.

Good luck:D

looby-loo_2

Friends of mine were just about to move when a neighbour said a corner of their garden belonged to him. He said that 10 years ago the fence had been put in the wrong place. He demanded and got £6,500 for the piece of garden measuring 12' x 6'.

moggylover

ukjoel wrote: »

We are in a similar position. Garden on our road are 130ft long at the back (width is standard semi detached house) but the gardens that back onto ours our 20ft long and same width.

General guidance is what would it devalue your house by and what would it increase theirs by.

You see a lot of big new houses in the country with small gardens backing onto huge fields. House cost £500,000 and has maybe quarter of an acre plot.

Farmland behind it is worth 5k-10k and acre. Yet that house with four acres is worth 800k-900k. Farmers well aware of the value of this land.

Have seen cases at auction where people have bought 50-100 acre plots simply to get 2 acres at the back of their house and the minute they win they run to the second highest bidder to offer him 95% of the land for 90% of the price he just offered.

Funniest one I saw were 3 neighbours who all wanted different parts of the same plot. Plot was valued at 40k and they pushed it up to 320k when if they had spoken before hand could have spent 15k each and got what they wanted.

But in this case, and in the Country, one is adding acreage not just a bit of garden. This turns a house into a Smallholding, not just a house with a bit bigger garden;) . Very different situations altogether:D

moggylover

looby-loo wrote: »

Friends of mine were just about to move when a neighbour said a corner of their garden belonged to him. He said that 10 years ago the fence had been put in the wrong place. My friends had pictures of their children riding their bikes round the disputed pieces of land 20 years ago so no way was there a mistake. He demanded and got £6,500 for the piece of garden measuring 12' x 6'.
They would have won if it had gone to court but the delay would have cost them their dream house. He must have know that and was patient enough to wait

Hopefully what goes around comes around and something just as nasty will be done to him someday.

TBH - I would probably not have given in to him:o , but then I hate thieves and am a stubborn old bag:o

Geenie

I live in an area where there is often bits of land or garden getting sold off, for unbelievable prices at time! I have been amazed at what has been built on a plot.

You need to get professional advice and valuation. Take into account, that your large garden is an advantage to your property compared to the neighbours, singles it out and adds extra value, in that it could be extended without loosing a decent sized garden.

Remember that even though they tell you they only want garden, they could be after extending long term.....have seen this happen a few times around where I live, so have a covenant in place to cover this.

They will be adding to the value of their place, you will be losing value on yours, so this should be factored in. Despite a falling market, land is precious, and should not be given away lightly if you are fortunate enough to have some.

Just remember that once gone you can not get it back, so consider very carefully how it will impact on your property and life.

paulpa66

I have the same issue. Neigbour that backs onto me wants the width of my garden 8.5M and some 14/15 metres of its length. Approx 122m squared.
He has offered £5.5k, this sounds too cheap to me?
I was thinking atleast £12k