Letter to farmer asking to buy some land

[Rach5l]

I don't want to come across as cheeky, how would I word a letter to a landowner asking if he'd be willing to sell me some of his land?
The land is on the outskirts of a small city, next to a motorway & is used for crops. About 1/2 a mile from the motorway is a track with 3 houses down it & id want to build a house next to the last one.
Have I got any chance at all??! I'm not sure of the law re this type of land. It's such a beautiful area though that I have a connection to & I wouldn't be able to afford property in that area otherwise so I thought I might as well give it a go

What's to lose? All they can say is no.

How much info do you have on the land? Do your council do a local drop in? Ours do, and for £35 you can discuss how likely planning is. Might help before you take the plunge.

I don’t suppose it would hurt to ask, but be prepared for a negative answer: it depends on local planning/green belt development/ change of use etc etc. Good luck!

Before you approach the farmer you need to see whether the council will permit change of use from agricultural and the building of a house there. No point buying the land if you can’t do anything with it.

I highly doubt the farmer would sell it to you if there’s potential for planning - unless you are prepared to pay a high price for it!!
You might find that the council won’t permit any more houses down the lane anyway due to various reasons so I’d check that out first!
Agricultural land sells for around £10000 an acre but land with the potential for planning could sell for £200000 an acre and without planning already permitted will you be able to afford that? You won’t be able to get a mortgage on it that’s for sure!

You would need to find out how likely planning permission would be, as others have suggested, speak to your local planning department.

Do you have an idea of what you can afford to pay for the land and to build the house? Land for building is worth more than straight arable land, obviously. Perhaps chat to a land agent about what you might expect to pay, so that you know how to approach the landowner.

We're farmers.

We sold a 3/4 acre plot last year with planning for over half a million.

No farmer or landowner will sell you potential building land for less than hundreds of thousands.

Good luck.