Can I develop this (London) land?

kcseb

Hi all

We live in a leafy part of Greater London, and happen to have a large rear garden. It's often suggested that we sell it for development (thanks others, re my post on the practicalities of doing so).

Planning in the area means probably only a few houses could be built: certainly no flats or anything high rise.

A neighbour's house is currently for sale, their garden partially borders ours: but the shared border is fairly small. You can see here, us in green and them in red.

Does it seems worth it to buy the neighbour's house, or is the shared border between the two lands too tenuous to be of use for a development of 4 to 5 houses? Neighbour also has a garage that can be taken down to provide access, without demolishing their actual house - so makes it more viable.

Best

London boy

freeisgood

"A few houses" not a chance, you will have all the neighbours objecting. Let alone get planning permission. You may get away with one which is what we did, but our garden backs on to open land so over crowding not an issue. That was tough enough. We are in a leafy London area too.

Doozergirl

You need to ask the planners, but in a leafy area where you have a strong building line with good back gardens and no other backland development visible in that block, I'd say you'd be very lucky indeed to get anything. I don't see a particular benefit to buying the neighbouring land - it doesn't make access any easier or conventional for the planners, even if it makes it potentially profitable for you. I would say that it affects the character of the area negatively, from the plan shown.

Which local authority is this? They should have some kind of Local Development Plan and hopefully some form of residential design guide.

You will need a planning consultant from the off as I think you will
Meet heavy opposition and would need to argue any planning policy points very hard. Your chance is if the authority don't have a local plan and national policy trumps it.

DaftyDuck

I doubt you'd get permission, as the properties shown all share the same back line (but extreme top left??.). The new property would clearly intrude on many other properties, removing privacy and increasing density. It would also set a precedent that would concern me. You'd probably get multiple objections.

You might as well ask....

kcseb

Hi all - turns out the potential purchase has more land than we thought - see below, their house comes with an adjacent plot so their revised land in red, and us in green. What do you think?

davidmcn

Still seems unlikely to me. Any similar (recent) applications for planning nearby?

kcseb

Well one across the road for two houses, where they knocked down an existing house. But they didn't fill backwards, staying with the original house's line.

We're thinking long-term though, like 10 years plus, as things change right?

davidmcn

I can't see that putting the plots together adds anything to the potential, unless there's some odd L-shaped development ideas I don't know about. I suspect you'd be better putting the money towards something you could actually develop in the foreseeable future.

Running_Horse

You should buy and demolish about a dozen neighbouring houses.

No idea if you would get planning, but it would be fun to watch.

Johnandabby

I can't see it working as suggested, but your property and the smaller property to the north east would make a good size plot. Assuming the properties are all full two storey (not rooms in roofs or bungalows), then my clients would probably look to get 7-10 flats at the entrance to the site in a 2.5 storey building, with a drive through to car parking and another 2-4 houses. My clients do this a lot in Barnet and surrounding London boroughs.

time2deal

I think its worth looking into. You could approach the council planning department and see if they will give you some non-binding advice.

The block looks very big, its just about access. I'd say one big house as the back of your land, accessed via the slightly narrower bit where the properties join. Maybe a house (or two terraces) at the back of the other property with a road running along the southern side, and some smaller flats or just the house at the entrance from the main road.

High risk, but possible high reward. Depends on your courage!