how do I find out the market value for land?

[NigellasGuest]

i am thinking of selling part of my garden to a builder to develop - but obviously need to know the "going rate" for plots of land.... otherwise I will have no idea whether he's offering me a good deal or not. How do I find out the market value? I have looked at the land registry website but it's not making much sense -I could be looking in the wrong place,

does anyone have any advice or experience of doing this please?

You could work back from the selling price of the dwelling which could be built on it. So, say it is a 3 bed house would be about £70k

If sale price is £150k and split the 'profit' would be worth £40K

However you also need to consider how much your property will lose in value from having a smaller plot, being overlooked and noisier.

Hmm I would hesitate about this as it will devalue your property. Maybe talk to a few estate agents to find out what the value of your property would be with a smaller garden and overlooked. Make sure that if you do sell it that you recoup the cost of devaluation plus extra otherwise it's not worth your while. Plus he may throw up a monstrosity of a house that blocks your sunlight, directly overlooks your garden/windows etc. have you looked at right move for any plots of land in your area?

Oh he will be trying it on too to maximise his profit! It certainly won't be the going rate as he's banking on you not doing your homework.

Be careful.

The builder may not actually build on the land but just hold on to it and wait for it to go up in value. The builder may even put it to another nuisance use such as storing vehicles, builders waste, etc.

If you need to sell your home it will be blighted by the fact that the neighbouring land might potentially have a house built on it or have a semi industrial use.

I fear the value of your house may lose as much value as you gain in the sale of the land. I have looked at quite a few houses to buy where this was hapening and they struggled to sell.

Take legal advice and have a very strict set of conditions imposed on the use of the land and timescale over which the house may be built, what size, height, type, materials.

Dh inherited some land and we got it valued by a property valuation person. So not an estate agent, not sure where Dh found him from but there are people who value land, etc.

our house is already overlooked and building at the end of the garden would block out the houses already overlooking us, and we would only be overlooked by one house.
I do not believe our house will be devalued by the garden being halved in size - the garden is big enough that halving it means the garden still does justice to the house, IYSWIM.
There is a lot of "infill" going on in the particular Herts town that I live in.
Hope that gives some context! there is no way the land would be used for semi industrial use - it would definitely be for residential property (the builder has done similar in the local area and has been around for 100 years). Our house is around £600k in value and a 3 bed house would be around £400k.
delayingtactic - I would like to know how to do my homework, if it makes sense! in fact, that was the reason I started the thread - how do I find out what is the going rate? Contact the people up the road who sold their plot for £whateveramount and ask them?

If a new three bed would cost £400k I would think that the land must cost at least £100k.
If you go here you can calculate the cost of building the house and therefore how much profit he would make. The website is what insurers use.
So for example if the land was £100k, and the cost of building £150k, he would make £150k profit so 37.5%.

That's what I would do. Look on property sites - check what asking prices are then what they sold for. I would 100% check what the devaluation may or may not be. Whilst you may feel it won't impact on your house price, I'd want confirmation of this by people who deal with these things.

There is no point selling if you don't end up in a much better financial position, especially as you'll have to put up with building works

I would be tempted to sell half of my garden for £100k!

Land value with full planning permission can be about 1/3rd of the final selling value of the land with house built.
So it the house on it would sell for £250k, perhaps the land is worth 75K .

It is worth least as a garden plot,
more with outline planning permission
most with full planning permission.

Also it is only worth what someone is actually willing and able to pay for it!

You could get OPP yourself - the process is quite easy - cost about £400 and takes 8 weeks - contact your local planning dept. That adds value then you could put it on the open market.

thanks for all your words of warning and advice. The BCIS website is very useful. I am going to ask estate agents what they would sell the plot of land for and see if it is what a builder might offer.

sorry I mean a land valuer not an estate agent.
Rebuild costs would be around £225 according to the BCIS website.
I won't bother with this for less than £100K for the land, as any less than that won't pay off the mortgage on our house -which is the whole point (plus not being able to keep on top of the garden).

the land would be worth more with planning consent than without, so get quotes for both, as it might be worth the outlay of architects and consent to get more back in return.