Value of adding a drive

Zeggybobleggy

Hi all!
I'll try and be brief. Our garden is attached to our house but only half of it belongs to us. The other half (the roadside half) belongs to our neighbour. They rent out their property and their side of the garden is never used and overgrown.
We recently approached them about selling a 3m² by 4m² section of their garden to us so we could turn that and a section of our own garden into a driveway. Im currently 5 months pregnant and the fact we have no onsite parking is making my husband worry (although I think we'll manage fine). They've replied with a yes but they want "£5k at the very least" for it (just for the 3m² by 4m² patch for the driveway). They're adamant that they won't sell the rest of the stretch and have said they've had our house valued and found out how much value a driveway will add and that's why they feel their little bit of land is worth at least £5k.
Now this isn't London. We live in a sleepy town in Devon with low employment and wages in an old 2 bed cottage with a downstairs bathroom. We bought our property for £132,500 in August 2018.
I can not for the life of me work out how he's come to £5k as the very least that plot is worth and I'm trying to understand where he's come from rather than just assuming he's being greedy and knows full well the land isn't worth that much. Does anybody have any idea how much value adding a drive might add to a property like ours? All the estate agents are busy because of Covid and the only one that's managed to come back to us reckon a drive would add around £5k in value, clearly not close to the amount that the neighbours seem to think a drive will be worth.
Please let me know if you'd like any more info and I'll do my best to provide it. Thank you for any insight and for reading this far!
Beth

RelievedSheff

This all depends on how much you value having a driveway. If you don't think that land is worth £5k then don't buy it and make do without a driveway. If you really want a driveway pay the £5k and make one.

It won't necessarily add £5k value to your property but it might make it more desirable over a property without a driveway.

unforeseen

Your neighbour has told you how much they expect for something YOU want. 
They don't have to sell it to you so it's your call whether to buy it at that price or not. 

Zeggybobleggy

unforeseen said:

Your neighbour has told you how much they expect for something YOU want. 
They don't have to sell it to you so it's your call whether to buy it at that price or not. 

Oh I absolutly agree and understand. My point is more that he seems to be very sure of the value on the basis of the value it will add to our property. If he's correct then it's worth buying as an investment but I can't work out how he's got to that number. I don't want to write it off immediately just because it was far higher than we were expecting and so am trying to do my research to understand if it really is worth the £5k. If we feel it's not it will be a case of thanks but not thanks and we'll make other plans.

Zeggybobleggy

RelievedSheff said:

This all depends on how much you value having a driveway. If you don't think that land is worth £5k then don't buy it and make do without a driveway. If you really want a driveway pay the £5k and make one.

It won't necessarily add £5k value to your property but it might make it more desirable over a property without a driveway.

I get that but he seems to be sure of its value from an investment point of view, that's how he's justifying that price. If it were purely whether a drive would be worth £5k to us plus losing some of our garden plus the cost of building a driveway then the answer is absolutely not. If it is worth that amount from an investment perspective (as he seems to think) then we need to look at it more carefully. 

eidand

why do you keep talking about the investment value?
Do you want the drive or not? Is it going to make life easier or not? That's what matters.

MovingForwards

You need a surveyor to work out (a) the price of the land and (b) how much value will currently be added to the property if it had a drive.

Alternatively, you could make an offer to the neighbour owner as to what you think that bit of land is worth.
Also factor in legal fees for both of you as you can't expect the neighbour owner to pay for it. Lastly, if either of you have mortgages, the mortgage lenders will be involved too.

I'm currently eyeing up the neighbours back garden, plus the neighbour after that's back garden so I could have a bigger garden, it's got absolutely no building on value, both are just a bit of garden.
Even I'm budgeting more than your neighbour owner has asked for, just for one of the gardens.

There are a few threads on MSE about buying land from neighbours, to find them it's easier to go via whatever browser you normally use as the search facility on this forum isn't what it should be:
"Buying land from neighbour" is your search term, without the speech mark.

NinjaTune

Is this a front or back garden?  

Have you also factored in how much would it cost to have a dropped kerb installed?  According to this link you are looking at £1.5k+ including the licence.

https://www.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/make-a-request/vehicle-crossing-or-dropped-kerb/

Personally I'd be surprised if a driveway adds £6.5k of value to a relatively low-priced cottage, especially if there is plentiful on road parking (but happy to be proven wrong).

unforeseen

Zeggybobleggy said:

RelievedSheff said:

This all depends on how much you value having a driveway. If you don't think that land is worth £5k then don't buy it and make do without a driveway. If you really want a driveway pay the £5k and make one.

It won't necessarily add £5k value to your property but it might make it more desirable over a property without a driveway.

I get that but he seems to be sure of its value from an investment point of view, that's how he's justifying that price. If it were purely whether a drive would be worth £5k to us plus losing some of our garden plus the cost of building a driveway then the answer is absolutely not. If it is worth that amount from an investment perspective (as he seems to think) then we need to look at it more carefully. 

It's nothing to do with investment. 

He sees the value of your house increasing by £5k with a drive if you ever sell. He doesn't see why you should profit from purchasing his land so wants at least that for you to buy it. 

If what he was selling you was big enough, when put with your land, to build a house on it then he would be asking possibly £100k because that is what it is worth to you. That's the way it works. Why should I sell something to you for peanuts that will make you a handsome profit? My land is what will make your profit so I want that profit. 

Zeggybobleggy

eidand said:

why do you keep talking about the investment value?
Do you want the drive or not? Is it going to make life easier or not? That's what matters.

Because I'm also interested in whether or not it's a good investment.
The owners have set the price at £5k believing that we are investing in the value of the property. They are approaching the sale from an investment angle and so I'm trying to understand if it's worth it from an investment angle. Otherwise it's a flat no and nobody goes anywhere, which is fine as long as I've done my research beforehand.
Yes, a drive would be convenient and great but not at the price they're asking. The only way it might be worthwhile is from an investment angle which is why I'm asking about it. I don't really know what else to say...

eidand

Zeggybobleggy said:

eidand said:

why do you keep talking about the investment value?
Do you want the drive or not? Is it going to make life easier or not? That's what matters.

Because I'm also interested in whether or not it's a good investment.
The owners have set the price at £5k believing that we are investing in the value of the property. They are approaching the sale from an investment angle and so I'm trying to understand if it's worth it from an investment angle. Otherwise it's a flat no and nobody goes anywhere, which is fine as long as I've done my research beforehand.
Yes, a drive would be convenient and great but not at the price they're asking. The only way it might be worthwhile is from an investment angle which is why I'm asking about it. I don't really know what else to say...

think of it this way, the value of your property might increase a bit, say by 2500. His property might lose 2500, less garden after all. There's a 5k difference right there, without you gaining 5k. The investment value to you, is not the only thing that matters.