Buying land off local council

andythedog

Hello,
I am interested in buying a plot of land which runs parallel with my house which is an end property.  The area is 300m sq, 20m x 15m. It is currently upkept by the local council (manchester area).  I have began enquires with them, but they want £600 plus, for admin costs etc, before providing a price. Has anyone any idea/experience as to how much I'd be paying per square metre? I don't want to pay £600 to find the price is too much.   

MX5huggy

Is it a building plot? Doesn’t matter if you don’t want to build on it. As a rough estimate I I would guess 1/3 of the price of a house that would fit on the land if built. 

andythedog

MX5huggy said:

Is it a building plot? Doesn’t matter if you don’t want to build on it. As a rough estimate I I would guess 1/3 of the price of a house that would fit on the land if built. 

The land is just an area of grass. I spoke to the council some years ago, when I was initially interested.  They said there would be a clause in the contract to say I couldn't build on it. 1/3 value of a house would equate to about £45k. That seems a little excessive for a bit of land which would purely only be allowed to be an extension of the garden? I've looked around and seen quotes on websites between £25 and £97 per square meter.  So it's all very wide ranging in price,  between £7k and £45k.

Ectophile

The price will be based on how much they think you need the land.  If the council are going to sell you the land, then they want to get as much money as they can for it.  The typical price of scrappy little bits of land in your area isn't really important here.

MX5huggy

If you can’t build a house on it either because it’s totally unsuitable or it’s written into the deeds then it’s not worth £45k. 

Apodemus

In most cases, the Council will have the land valued by the District Valuer (or the equivalent in your area) and if there is a restriction on use, that will be taken into account.  Unless it can be put to other purposeful use and has a value that is different from just extending your garden, it will quite possibly simply be valued as the total value of your property with the additional land, less the value of your property as it is at present.  The whole point in a District Valuer's valuation is to provide an independent fair estimate of value and this is quite often a lower value than open-market value, where people make irrational bids.  I don't think you have anything to fear from the process.

TELLIT01

£600 seems a lot just to get a price out of them, but if that's what they are demanding there is nothing you can do apart from pay up or give up on the idea of owning that land.  As others have said, it's almost impossible to say what the valuation figure will be.

SootySweep1

Hi
How much would that land add to the value of your property ?
What do you want to do with the land ?
Jen

andythedog

SootySweep1 said:

Hi
How much would that land add to the value of your property ?
What do you want to do with the land ?
Jen

The land would be purely to extend the garden. Ultimately, it could give me the option of extending to the back of the house,  which would not compromise garden space.  

andythedog

TELLIT01 said:

£600 seems a lot just to get a price out of them, but if that's what they are demanding there is nothing you can do apart from pay up or give up on the idea of owning that land.  As others have said, it's almost impossible to say what the valuation figure will be.

That's my concern. If they're prepared to overcharge for the admin fees, god knows what price they could put on the land 

zemarcopolo

Please update the forum with final outcome if possible.