How much is a half acre garden plot worth?

[SallyForthmadeerie]

I would be very grateful for some sound advice from all you property-wise mumsnetters on my impending house purchase and the value of a half acre plot of land adjacent to my garden.

I have had an offer accepted on a detached cottage –a doer-upper in a lovely sought-after conservation village in a National Park, fabulous position on the village green with a large rear garden. The elderly couple I am buying it from live next door and want to retain unrestricted vehicular access up my drive and through my garden to the half acre vegetable plot behind their rear garden which otherwise is not accessible by car. I am happy to give them this – they are decent, reasonable people and I am as confident as I can be that they would only use it intermittently – they don’t have a car themselves and it would only be for delivery of manure etc.

However, I don’t want to extend the same unrestricted access rights to anyone else, i.e. some future purchaser of their property who I don’t know who might abuse it or try to build another house on the plot accessed via my garden. For my peace and privacy and the safety of my children and dogs, this is a deal breaker. I am also concerned it might make my house very difficult to sell and affect the value.

The vegetable plot is about half an acre – how much would it be worth? One thing I could perhaps do is to make a generous offer for it – and then rent it back to them for their lifetime at a peppercorn rent – so I do not have the worry about what happens when they either die or sell. Any advice on the market value of the land or what it would be ‘worth’ to either party would be very gratefully received. I suspect they don't need to sell the land and my only leverage is to withdraw my offer which I don't want to do.

It's their veg plot but you own the access? So you are giving them permission to use your drive? Talk to your solicitor but surely they have no actual rights over your land, so no subsequent purchaser would have rights either?

Hi LGQT - the clause to permit access over the property I am buying from them for vehicles is in the contract I have received yesterday. So yes, from what I understand from the solicitor, access would be transferred to subsequent owners of their property. They have foot access to the veg plot though from their garden.

I think it's worth having a chat with the couple,tell them your worries,& suggest your idea about purchasing the land & renting it back for small change,if that land can be incorporated into your garden then it's more valuable than being a separate parcel of land,as for value I would be thinking of something close to 10 K,but if they were interested in your idea you could negotiate or they may want an estate agent to value it.
Good luck with it.

Typically the smaller amounts of land are more expensive. In our area the first 10 acres are 7.5k pre acre. Subsequent acres less £. We have a field with vehicular access over it to the field behind but the owners are great and we have no issues. We have an agreement with them when they sell we get first refusal.

Thanks for the replies - much appreciated. 10K sounds reasonable I think for the area and how much value it might add to my house or reduce theirs by.

Superbaghag - may I ask if the agreement to give you first refusal is a legal agreement or just a 'handshake'? I don't know if this can be written into a contract for example.

Yes the land could be incorporated into our garden Gooner so I understand your point that its value will be more than the going rate for agricultural land etc. but I had no idea how much more and don't want to make an insulting or laughable offer. I'd rather make one they wouldn't resent or think I was trying to pull a fast one!