Selling my house to a developer for demolition and access rights

ongley

Hi, I've been renovating and extending my family home for 5 years (too long!).   I have a large farmers field behind me (could get 100+ houses on) but it is land locked.  A developer has approached me and offered to buy my house for £1m (it's worth about £850-900k when finished).  He wants to knock it down and create the road into the farmers land.  There are about 7 other houses on either side of me he could also use and in fact one was recently on the market for £750k.  Seems strange he has approached me when he could have had that one (he may be the one that has bought it but from what our neighbours have said it doesn't sound like it and I don't want to tell them too much).  It all seems a bit dodgy to me and I will get a solicitor involved but should I push for more money (we've already said we wouldn't accept an option or conditional offer) knowing he could ask my neighbours and then I may (there is no guarantee he'll get planning permission) have a road running down the side of my house and a new development behind it?  This was my forever home but if I could get £200-300k above market value and be mortgage free it is something I would consider.  Also if anyone has done this what type of solicitor did you use and did the developer pay?

davidmcn

You'd be best to get advice from a surveyor about what your property is actually worth to the developer - I doubt the first offer is their highest.

If it ends up being a straightforward unconditional sale then you don't need any special kind of conveyancer, it's just a normal transaction albeit at an enhanced price.