Purchasing land to extend our garden?

Nuninge

Hello peeps,

Not sure if you can help but thought it worth a punt. The house whose garden is at the bottom of ours has come up for sale. The house is in a terrible state but it has a 200ft long garden. This is completely covered in what looks like blackberry bushes....thorny and five foot high!!! We have a relatively small garden and were thinking that we could approach whoever buys it to buy the end of their garden to add it to ours. This would probably only be about maybe 15 feet square although possibly more to give us some space for a shed. How worth it do you think this is in terms of adding to the value of our house and what sort of price would you think would be reasonable?

Thanks in advance,

Nuninge

phill99

You ask some open ended questions. In terms of valuie, you need to speak to a local (reputable) firm of valuers / surveyors. They will give you a ball park figure of the value of garden land.

If you say pay £2000 for the land, remember that it may not addd that to the value of your house, but it may make it more saleable.

Also, you might want to ignore the financial value that it adds to your house. Instead, try and think of it as increasing the amenity value to you, ie a garden you can enjoy more, and more storage space. If we only considered value when we did anything to our homes, we would end up doing very little.

SailorSam

The way the housing market is the property could be on the market for a long time, why not approach the people that are there now, they may see it as a bonus.
Regarding the price .... depends which part of the country you are.

Biggles

SailorSam wrote: »

The way the housing market is the property could be on the market for a long time, why not approach the people that are there now, they may see it as a bonus.

I agree. If I bought a house because it had a nice big garden, the last thing I would want to do would be to sell part of it.

But it won't change the value of the house a great deal, so the current vendors might look for it to pay their estate agents/conveyancing costs.

Leif

If the house is in a terrible state then chances are it will sell at a low price to someone who wants to do it up. They might not care so much about a 200ft garden, so you might be able to purchase a decent length. Would the price really differ if the garden was only 170 ft rather than 200ft? I suspect not. So the vendor might see it as a way to get extra money in addition to the house itself.

I suppose the real question is not what value does the other house lose (which I would guess to be small) but what value does it add to your house. They would presumably go via an estate agent or solicitor, and that is probably how they would think, so they might try and ask for a lot.

Here is an interesting thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1640485

Note the fact that solicitors fees could add up to several thousand pounds, even though they would not do a great deal. £200 per hour is not unusual, and it could get complex if the original deeds have oddities in them, or something somewhere has not been done quite right in the past.

Barneysmom

I don't know how much it would cost but go for it.
My friend has a garden 180 feet long and wishes it was half the size, it's too big for them to manage.

Nuninge

phill99 wrote: »

You ask some open ended questions. In terms of valuie, you need to speak to a local (reputable) firm of valuers / surveyors. They will give you a ball park figure of the value of garden land.

If you say pay £2000 for the land, remember that it may not addd that to the value of your house, but it may make it more saleable.

Also, you might want to ignore the financial value that it adds to your house. Instead, try and think of it as increasing the amenity value to you, ie a garden you can enjoy more, and more storage space. If we only considered value when we did anything to our homes, we would end up doing very little.

I'm afraid I do see it in terms of resell as we plan to move at some point to be in a better catchment area for my little boy so if this makes it more saleable then may be worth it. But thank you for your response as I realise that my questions were very vague and open ended.

Nuninge

SailorSam wrote: »

The way the housing market is the property could be on the market for a long time, why not approach the people that are there now, they may see it as a bonus.
Regarding the price .... depends which part of the country you are.

This place will not be on the market for long...it's either sealed bids or auction can't remember which but by the 1st of August. It really is in a terrible state and someone with the right know-how of building could get it for a steal so think they will be buying for the return potential on the house rather than the garden if that makes sense. I am in the south east - Ipswich. House is empty at the moment.

Nuninge

Biggles wrote: »

I agree. If I bought a house because it had a nice big garden, the last thing I would want to do would be to sell part of it.

But it won't change the value of the house a great deal, so the current vendors might look for it to pay their estate agents/conveyancing costs.

I think it will be purchased because of it's refurbishment potential. It is on for guide price 105000 but one developer I saw said he would be offering about half that because the back end of the house is subsiding. Whoever buys it is going to have a hell of a job on their hands with the house and might relish losing a bit of garden ha ha...less to sort out before quick resale!!
Thanks for your thoughts though.

Nuninge

Leif wrote: »

If the house is in a terrible state then chances are it will sell at a low price to someone who wants to do it up. They might not care so much about a 200ft garden, so you might be able to purchase a decent length. Would the price really differ if the garden was only 170 ft rather than 200ft? I suspect not. So the vendor might see it as a way to get extra money in addition to the house itself.

I suppose the real question is not what value does the other house lose (which I would guess to be small) but what value does it add to your house. They would presumably go via an estate agent or solicitor, and that is probably how they would think, so they might try and ask for a lot.

Here is an interesting thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1640485

Note the fact that solicitors fees could add up to several thousand pounds, even though they would not do a great deal. £200 per hour is not unusual, and it could get complex if the original deeds have oddities in them, or something somewhere has not been done quite right in the past.

Thank you for the link to the other thread, it made for interesting reading. We would be the only people who could approach them to purchase as all our neighbours houses back onto an alleyway before backing on to their garden. I wouldn't be much in the mood for a haggle so would make what I think a decent offer (probably£1500 max) and if they say no, then at least I've tried.