Ransom Strip

yellowkylie

Hi all,

Sorry if this is wrong area. Wondered if anyone could shed any light for me on this or been in similar position. I own a piece of land seperate to the land where the house sits whch acts as our drive way and and has garage at the end of it. its quite long could fit about 3 cars on it.

It land locks a piece of land that is owned by Redrow homes, we have been approached by people thinking about buying the land from redrow for what ever reason asking if they could buy some of our land so that they would be able to access the plot. Am i right in thinkin this is a ransom strip?

If so do you think redrow themselves would be interested in buying it off us? Would probably upset the neighbours lol, but I am just curious? Has anyone ever been in a similar situation or approached property developers etc? Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Beth. x

poppysarah

If your strip is the only access it's VERY valuable.

edit: more valuable than a normal bit of land.

But would you lose a drive and garage? That'd devalue your house along with whatever they put on the land.
Sell your house to whoeever wants it for shedloads and then it's not your problem what they do with it.

silvercar

You could get a very good price by selling your home with the land to a developer. Then you won't end up living on a building site while they develop.

If you really want to stay put you could auction your ransom strip or ask for sealed bids. A good local estate agent could help you. I'm not sure if now is the right time, many builders are not currently taking on new developments.

If the ransom strip and your home are on the same title deed they will both be security for your mortgage so you will need your lenders consent.

yellowkylie

The house and seperate land are on seperate deeds but same lender, I would prefer to sell the house along with it if I was gunna sell not our problem then, wouldnt really want to loose my driveway and garage and stay in the house.

Would I go direct to redrow then? Am a bit clueless about all this.

Tar

MenstrieBen

An approximation i've seen applied is that a reasom strip where it is the only access to a site can be worth up to 20% of the value of thetotal development.

however given the current market holding out for lots may be the straw that sends thedeveper looking at other sites first.....

i'd reccomennd getting your own legal advice on it rather than going direct to the developer

Cat695

I think you would be pretty daft to sell it to them now as it would be unlikely they would want to build in this climate (ie recession not winter)

so they would probably offer you alot less than you could get when they DO want to start building...so hold off

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

i cant see redrow being interested. If they were, they would have been to see you already.

The fact that they are (thinking of?) selling the land kinda tells the story i would have thought..

clutton_2

the significant question is - why are Redrow selling the land ?? has Planning been turned down ? if so your strip is worth next to nothing

Robert_Sterling_3

Would you care to put up your postcode so we can get a google Birds Eye View of the plot?

truman_sparks

The real value is when planning permission is obtained, untill then all the land is valued according to its uses (not many if landlocked).

So hold off untill planning is determined, at this point your strip value could increase by 50-100 times. sell it now and its a basic land value.

The only other way is to sell it with a clause which entitles you to a percentage of the value of the development if it goes ahead (may never happen).

Sit tight in my opinion and make sure it really is land locked, could they buy another house and demolish it for access?

In the mean time, if someone asks if your prepared to sell some land then simply say yes. The negotiations come later.

ts

lincroft1710

The term of such a piece of land is "key to development". As it was landlocked Redrow probably acquired their land reasonably cheaply with only a small percentage representing "hope value" (the additional value for a piece of land for which it is hoped planning permission may be granted). The only way to find out Redrow's intention for the land is to ask - but they may not tell you! Unless we are talking tens of thousands, I would have thought the land/garage would be far more useful to you than the money. And I bet the people who've approached won't buy your land until they've bought Redrow's and I also believe they won't offer as much as you think it's worth.