Pitfalls of buying a village property

baldemort

Hello to you all! Could someone please help me with a really rather worrying problem. I have always lived in large towns or cities but am just about to buy a property in a more rural location in a smallish village. My primary concern is how prices of village properties vary compared to those of city ones. The main worry is buying a property in a nice little village location to then find that someone decides to buy a patch of nearby land and develop it, hence knocking down the price of the house I have bought.

It's a real worry that I didn't really have in already built up cities etc. Is there any way of finding out whether land can be built on, or can any land be built on nowadays due to land shortage and more and more land being freed up even in green belt areas. Does the green belt even exist as it used to in it's previously protected state?

Many thanks.

smcqis

Contact your local Planning Department and find out what are the limits of development for the village and if there are any zonings. Also find out when next area plan is to be commenced for future information where you will be able to make comments on it, including what you want in or out (though needs to be valid planning reasons). Its unlikely housing built in the village will affect your house that much as if its a village then there wont usually be large scale housing development as it would be out of character (depends on current make up of village)

mustrum_ridcully

It's a risk you have to take. Greenbelt land only really exists to stop large towns/cities from swallowing-up villages or other towns (for example there's one between Bath and Bristol).

By moving into a village you're potentially depriving someone who was born and raised in the village and/or works locally a home. If there are enough of these people they and their families may well be able to push the council into allowing development.

sirmosh

There are a couple of villages local to me who have experienced fairly rapid expansion over the last decade and it doesn't appear to have significantly lowered prices or hurt the desirability of the area too much. You take the same risk with any house really, even if you buy a property in the middle of a cluster of terraces there's no guarantee half of them won't get knocked down to make way for a supermarket although of course when paying the premium to live in a desirable rural location you do have more to lose.

wymondham

If you're worried about future value to that extent then buy in a developed area where there is no land around you that could be built on (ie already done). That way you can be more certain your value will hold....

Itismehonest

You can find places where building is not allowed. They're normally within National Parks, National Trust areas etc. but they'll cost you.

ruggedtoast

If you buy a house overlooking fields and farmland and you want to guarantee that will be your view for ever after then you need to buy those fields and farmland at the same time.

East Croydon was a pleasant leafy village at one point.

If you want to buy somewhere in a conservation area you'll pay an even higher premium.

A.L.D.A

I live in a small town. It is an area of townscape character and allegedly protected. You still get people who wish to build in their gardens, subdivide larger properties etc. No where is 100% guaranteed safe.

The other problems you have in small towns is a steady reduction in services. The local bank branch has just closed, the post office under threat, bus services limited, local shops are few and vulnerable etc.

Itismehonest

A.L.D.A wrote: »

I live in a small town. It is an area of townscape character and allegedly protected. You still get people who wish to build in their gardens, subdivide larger properties etc. No where is 100% guaranteed safe.

The other problems you have in small towns is a steady reduction in services. The local bank branch has just closed, the post office under threat, bus services limited, local shops are few and vulnerable etc.

What about inalienable land? I'm virtually surrounded by it.

propertyman

ruggedtoast wrote: »

East Croydon was a pleasant leafy village at one point.

In which parallel universe :rotfl:

There is a little post office north of Holland park tube where what is now the Clarendon Road area, which had photos of a hundred years ago of open fields of Notting Hill with grazing sheep.

baldemort

Many thanks to you all for the great advice. I would have normally assumed that increasing supply of housing in any area would drive prices down a touch, and that in a rural area where a nice green setting adds to the charm of a property or area, more houses would spoil this to some degree. I'll contact local offices to research as advised, too. Many thanks.