Garden land: estimated cost

Llyllyll

This is not strictly a question about houses, but property related and I couldn't find anywhere more suitable to post.

There is a triangular plot of land (approx. 50ft x 50ft x 25ft) behind my house that the property behind owns. They can no longer maintain it and I am interested in buying it. There are no services to the land, no development potential, it cannot be accessed from the road and can only be accessed by three houses from their back gardens.

I want to use it to extend my garden and grow some fruit and veg. Can anyone offer any advice on how to value this so as to make a sensible and realstic offer.

Thanks in advance.

PS - I live in S Wales, 15 miles north of Cardiff.

chickmug

Even though I was an EA I feel it is almost impossible to give accurate help. Usually sellers (and certainly their family when older people) feel it is worth thousands and the buyer will feel it is worth hundreds.

Many times I have handled rural places where the buyer has contacted the adjoining land owner asking about buying a little land but owners tend to be very protective and nearly always refused to sell at any price.

Do you feel one of the others, that adjoin the land, would be interested. If I had an approach I would ask the other two and try work the price up.

In your case the only approach I would make is to casually ask them if they would be intertested and see what they have to say. However it can go wrong when they ask their friends, family, neighbour on the other side, etc. Even if you pitch in with your offer they will almost certainly take advice off others.

What would you be prepared to pay for it?

Llyllyll

chickmug wrote: »

Usually sellers (and certainly their family when older people) feel it is worth thousands and the buyer will feel it is worth hundreds.

That's exactly how I feel.

There is a pony paddock for sale much closer to Cardiff that COULD be used for development and that's about £50k for 3 acres.

I'm pretty sure none of the other neighbours would be interested in it but that could well change if they know it's for sale.

I would say that £300 would be my starting price and I would go up to £400.

Davesnave

The question you have to ask yourself is, 'How much would this piece of land add to the value of my house?'

It is easier to put a figure on this, if your own plot is very small or has shortcomings that might be rectified by ownership. For example, no person who thinks of themselves a gardener would consider an entirely shaded plot, so a house with that shortcoming would be harder to sell. Similarly, putting up a home office type of structure is easier if you are not covering more than half your garden.

I say this, because I own a patch of garden land which a number of people would like. They would each gain significantly by making their gardens child-friendly and by having somewhere sunny to sit. I reckon that's worth £5k each as there's no other way for them to achieve these things, short of moving. We all know what that costs!

lincroft1710

£400 sounds far too low, I think you're going to have to start at about £1,000.

Llyllyll

Thanks for the info and different viewpoints.

It wouldn't add any new facilities or features (as stated) as such, it's just that it would be nice to have that little extra for a reasonable sum.

If I can't get it then so be it, I've done without it for the last 8 years but hate to see things fall into a state because people can't look after them.

Perhaps I could come to some rental agreement for a couple of years...

tanith

I was going to suggest that you approach the owners with an offer of free use but giving them any produce that is surplus.. that way they get the land kept in use and you get the use of it for free.. You never know they may be glad that someone is going to keep it tidy for free..

Doozergirl

Cripes! We got a letter in the post today asking to buy some garden land from us

chickmug is obviously right about the values being skewed between buyer and vendor because if they offered us £400 for a section that big, it wouldn't even be worth the hassle That's my expectations squashed!

Richard_Webster

The question you have to ask yourself is, 'How much would this piece of land add to the value of my house?

And how much would it reduce the value of the other house? Valuations can be very subjective. A lot of people aren't interested in gardening and therefore as long as the garden is not unreasonably small, the garden size is not important to them. A very big garden can actually put a buyer off because he may have to maintain it. Others, like my wife, would be in their seventh heaven. She like lots of space (having been brought up on a farm) and wants to grow loads of fruit and veg and our suburban garden just isn't big enough for that!

Having said that I suspect an estate agent would use the large garden as a selling point with lots of pictures etc. You have to look at the price band of properties in your are and of the same type. Say the band is £180K (sound structurally but tired decorations etc) to £200K (all recently done - new kitchen, new bathroom, new everything) so avergae is around £190K - both your properties are "average", then the estate agent might try to sell yours for £193-7K because of the larger garden - anyone's guess where the deal would be done - but the figure is going to be something that moves the property slightly up the price band and that would surely be low thousands in most cases.

By all means offer a few hundred (saying it doesn't make much difference to value and most people don't want large gardens etc), but I would guess more like £2-3K. Also, unless they get an amount of money that is signficant for them they may not want to bother.

If the band for that type of house was say £90-100K then the figure would be lower ( say around £1K) and if much higher, then the value would be higher in proportion.

chickmug

Richard_Webster wrote: »

And how much would it reduce the value of the other house? Valuations can be very subjective. A lot of people aren't interested in gardening and therefore as long as the garden is not unreasonably small, the garden size is not important to them. A very big garden can actually put a buyer off because he may have to maintain it. Others, like my wife, would be in their seventh heaven. She like lots of space (having been brought up on a farm) and wants to grow loads of fruit and veg and our suburban garden just isn't big enough for that!

Having said that I suspect an estate agent would use the large garden as a selling point with lots of pictures etc. You have to look at the price band of properties in your are and of the same type. Say the band is £180K (sound structurally but tired decorations etc) to £200K (all recently done - new kitchen, new bathroom, new everything) so avergae is around £190K - both your properties are "average", then the estate agent might try to sell yours for £193-7K because of the larger garden - anyone's guess where the deal would be done - but the figure is going to be something that moves the property slightly up the price band and that would surely be low thousands in most cases.

By all means offer a few hundred (saying it doesn't make much difference to value and most people don't want large gardens etc), but I would guess more like £2-3K. Also, unless they get an amount of money that is signficant for them they may not want to bother.

If the band for that type of house was say £90-100K then the figure would be lower ( say around £1K) and if much higher, then the value would be higher in proportion.

Richard what would the fees be to the buyer and the seller to convey this small bit of land. It could put one or the other off?

silvercar

Near me "buyer" offered 5k to square off his triangular garden after building 800k house on a plot. "seller" wanted 40k due to the perceived value it would add to the house and the annoyance that their back garden was now overlooked.

No sale.