Should we look further into this? Land issue.

MsConfused

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate some opinions of our situation.

My partner and I are in the process of buying our first home. The house we've put on offer on overlooks a large piece of land (were on top of a hill, so looking out across the land), which was obviously a huge selling point for us. We've just found out that part of this land has been sold in auction. We've checked with the local authority, who say that the land is designated open space and nothing can be built on it. Although that's put our mind to rest a little, I can't help but be curious as to why someone would pay a couple of thousand for land they can't build on. Should we be concerned by this? And is there any way we can find out what their intentions are for the land? I know a lot of you will think we're being nosey, but we're just worried.

Thanks for your help.

pawpurrs

Some one may have bought it to extend their garden or as land to keep animals on.
Only way to find out for sure, is to find out who bought it and go from there, firstly ask the vendor of the house, they may well know.

MsConfused

Thanks for your reply pawpurrs. Yeah, we're hoping it may be to keep horses on or something. We've called the auction place but they say they can't tell us who's bought it (it only sold last week). The vendor doesn't know anything either. I think it will be OK - just wanted to know if there's anything we should be suspicious of.

cattie

Sometimes people buy land if it's cheap enough in the hope that at some time in the future the planning laws will be relaxed & building upon it may become a possibility.

m_13

Don't want to be negative but ...

We bought a house overlooking farmland. Before we bought it we checked with the LA and were told that the village boundary ran along the bottom of our garden and the farmland could never be built on.

Whilst we had the property up for sale we were invited to a meeting to discuss the siting of the new village hall. One of the proposed sites was directly behind our house. At the meeting a vote was taken and the preferred location was another option further out of the village. Our purchaser was happy (and at the meeting) and the sale completed.

After we moved one of our old neighbours got in touch to say that a planning application had been put in for the field for affordable housing, a floodlit football pitch with changing facilities and a new village hall. They wanted to know if we had any correspondence showing that we had been told that the land would not be built on. Unfortunately we did not but I advised them to look at the development plan for the LA which did show the village is unsuitable for further development because it did not have enough facilities.

The application was withdrawn as an 'invalid application' but I don't think it will be last of it as the Parish Council has been asked to identify locations for affordable housing to be built in response to a housing needs survey.

There is extreme pressure on LAs to identify where they are going to put all the new housing that the government says needs to be built. Open space can be undesignated and built upon. Where I live now there is an ongoing campaign to stop the council identifying allotments as building land.

I would check and see if the council has already allocated sites for future housing growth. A plan should be available on their website.

MsConfused

Thank you for your responses - particularly m_13. It's very useful to know that they can change the rules. Will do a bit more digging around I think - just to be on the safe side.

N79

The only way to (almost) guarentee a view is to own all the land between your house and the view.

Ask around the village -someone will know who has bought it.

Richard_Webster

Or they bought it to prevent someone else building on it in the future and spoiling their view or so as not to be overlooked.

CougarJo

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Or they bought it to prevent someone else building on it in the future and spoiling their view or so as not to be overlooked.

Yeah, my auntie and uncle did this. The farmer was selling his fields which were directly behind my auntie and uncle's house. Because they didn't want anyone buying it and developing the land, they bought it themselves. They have no plans to develop it but want to preserve their privacy.

bootalishus

hi
where my sister lives in essex, the strip of land either side of her were supposidly bought by a lady to put her horses on. Overnight the caravans arrived and she now has traveller camps either side of her.
Beware. It takes forever for the council to get rid of them especially when they own the land and it is green belt.

Davesnave

People weigh these things up all the time.

I was interested in a smallholding last year, partly because it was on the edge of a rapidly-growing village. After seeing where the development boundary was, I decided that they'd probably not be thinking to include the relevant field for a long time, so I lost interest. Others must have felt the same way, as it didn't sell for ages.

However, we could have all been wrong as, just occasionally, 'odd' decisions are made, for one reason or another.

You just have to do the research & thinking the other way round, but there's nothing sinister in itself about people buying a field at auction. A clue could be in what they paid per acre, however!