Buying a house, splitting garden, then reselling

ste1200

Hi, I am interested in buying a house which has a garden which runs down the back of my home. The plan would be to effectively cut the garden in half, giving me a garden and then reselling the house and what's left of the garden immediately.

Can anyone tell me what authorities I would need to contact to do this please, and also what sort of mortgage would be best to minimise cost ?

The other spanner in the works is that there is a plot of land next to the house which comes with it. I would build a house on that then sell that. I'm hoping to break even and gain a garden for my current home.

Thanks in advance

marliepanda

Well planning permission for the house of course.

If you have a mortgage on the property you'll need permission from the lender to take part of the garden for yourself

Your timeline also doesn't make much sense. You can't split the garden and sell the house on immediately if you're building a house on the plot, unless your planning to split it even further and sell a house next to a building site?

ProDave

I guess a lot depends on your circumstances and how you are funding it.

If taking a mortgage, I would probably keep quiet about the plans to sell immediately, just "buy" it, but look for a mortgage without early redemption penalties. Then put the house on the market with the smaller garden. At sale time your solicitor will split the title.

The rub comes that the house may well sell for less with the smaller garden. Will you be able to take that hit and still clear the mortgage upon sale? if not you have a problem.

The issue of building on the land is separate. You will need PP for that. How certain are you that you will get it? If you get PP before you sell the house with it's smaller garden, that may put off buyers as they don't want to live next to a building site. If you wait until you have sold and gained the garden before applying for PP the new owners of the house will likely object to your planning application.

If you can afford it, the best would be buy the house, split the garden, build the new house, then sell the old one once the new house is complete, but that means funding the purchase and the new build before you sell, and none of us know your finances and how you would achieve that.

It certainly sounds an interesting prospect, it's not every day you get a chance to enlarge your garden.

eddddy

I doubt you could get a mortgage - unless you claim you're buying it as a BTL. (Because I doubt that a lender would believe that you wanted a 'second home' next to your main home!)

In reality, what you're describing is a development project, so you'd need development finance.

You can try googling 'development finance' and contact some of the companies. They're likely to ask you for a business plan, and ask you about your track record in property development etc.

glasgowdan

This sounds like an insanely stressful and expensive way to have a larger garden.

Surely the best thing for you is to move house when something suitable comes on the market?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

I have to agree with the above. You intend to buy and sell a house, split the plot 3 ways, build a brand new house on one part and sell that and hope to come out at the end with no more gain than a larger garden?

Why not approach the seller and say "Can I buy half the garden?" They might say yes, and it would be a lot less trouble.

Ozzuk

Keep in mind you may not be able to sell the house for 6 months, and don't forget all the extra stamp duty and legal fees (for splitting the land as well).

Doesn't mean its not possible, just tread carefully!

ste1200

At the moment I don't have a garden at all. My home is perfect as it is, but the one thing that is missing is a garden. I've been told by he estate agent that valued it last, a garden would put around £30k on the value of the house, which wouldn't mean too much but having a garden would mean we wouldn't ever have to move.

We could have a conservatory and also private space for my daughter to run around in. We have approached the seller before it went up for sale about the garden but they didn't get back to us.

Thanks for the info, I'll start with the mortgage broker and contact the town hall for planning office.

ste1200

Just to give you some figures.

The property & land is currently on the market for £160K. The house doesn't need any work doing to it.

The value of the house if I split the garden off is £100-£115K.

The cost to build the new house is £50-55K and the value of the new house would be £110-125K.

This is without any fees taken into account. So for the value it would put on my house, I think it is worth it, and if the house sell at the upper valuations, I could even make money out of it.

DoaM

So the value of the garden is, say, £45k?

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

DoaM wrote: »

So the value of the garden is, say, £45k?

That's the garden and the building plot, presumably.