Extending New Build Garden

agowinuk

Hi,


I bought a semi-detached new-build property last year and have already out-grown the rear garden. As we are semi-detached, we have a small patch of land (about 8m2), that we are considering putting an offer in for.


I spoke to someone in the development's sales office (they are still building half of the estate), but they said that the company probably wouldn't sell as it would cause them too much admin (having to change the maintenance rates, estate plans etc). Has anyone else tried to do this and, if so, how did you go about it? So far, all I have done is send an email to Customer Services, asking someone to get in touch about it.


Any help would be great


Andy

Davesnave

If someone buys an extra piece of land from any vendor, it's usual for them to pay both sides' legal costs.

Before going further, would you be up for this, bearing in mind that the cost for 8m2 wouldn't be significantly different from that for 80m2?

lincroft1710

8 sq m is about the size of a Ford Focus!

Penelope_Penguin

lincroft1710 wrote: »

8 sq m is about the size of a Ford Focus!

But the OP said 8m sq, which is 64 sq m or approx 8 Ford Focus

steppevos

OP said 8m2 which normally means 8 m x m, but we will have to wait for the OP to clarify. :-)

lincroft1710

Thanks Penelope and steppevos I misread, thought he said sq m not m sq. I plead old age

ReadingTim

Housebuilders exist to make a profit, so every square millimeter of that development will have been planned to extract the maximum for it the developer will think they can get for it - there's unlikely to be any "spare" land, unless it's a condition of the planning permission. The space will therefore be earmarked for something, even if it's not built yet, so any additional space you want to acquire will be at the expense of another plot, which will be less desirable as it'll be smaller than the rest, which means it'll have to be cheaper to sell.

However, whilst developers exist to make a profit, they prefer to make it quickly, so if they're confident they could sell a smaller plot in the future, whilst flogging you the land now, they might be open to negotiations. However, they'll be doing it at full commercial rates, rather than doing you a favour to save themselves the admin, so don't kid yourself you'll get a bargain....

Doozergirl

You can try, but my thoughts echo ReadingTim's.

Developers often build smaller than a local authority's recommended garden size etc to get as much money out of a space as possible. They really do push hard on minimum standards, so you really could compromise another house's garden to the point of it breaching planning conditions.

No doubt the layouts will already be agreed by the planners. I wouldn't hold out much hope.

Fuzzyness

i dont know whats behind you or beyond the strip of land that you want to purchase, but developers often retain this as ransom strips, so that the effectively stop other future developers gaining access to undeveloped land. that may be one reason why they arent willing to sell. more likely though is that as they are half way through the development and still building a little land sale such as this is of no interest to them. they may be more attentative once they have completed and the builders have moved on. a small sum of money for a piece of land that wont be big enough for a house will add to their coffers how ever small a sum you pay.