Trying to sell a 'niche' property. Any advice?

[Willowcat77]

I'm trying to sell my house which is a pretty suburban Victorian terrace with an unusual amount of land - I bought the land (about one third of an acre) after I bought the house, about 18 years ago. I've planted loads of lovely fruit trees and it's useful for parking and having outbuilding etc.

I've only had 6 viewers in 6 weeks. People are shocked when they see the size of the garden. I had One good offer which was was withdrawn because she decided the garden was too big. Now viewings have totally dried up...

I'm worried the house might be over-priced for the area but the estate agent says no - she said it's a 'niche' property because of the land and also because it's an unusually well-preserved period house in an area of mostly bland 1940's ex-council properties. So there is nothing you can really compare it to in the area.

Here's the rightmove link:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54765498.htmll_

So I don't know what to do. Not sure if reducing the price will help if people are scared the amount of land. Somebody mentioned selling it in an auction to attract builders but I can't afford for it to go at a really low price. Any suggestions?

I would love a secret garden like that! It is unusual though, I can see why lots of people looking at a terrace house want a low maintenance garden. Have you thought about selling them separately? With the opportunity to buy both if the buyer is interested. You may find you sell the house more quickly then.

Is this the outline of land?

Land values will have gone up, the question is by how much. As well as the sellability of this land due to its location and constraints.

Separate titles don't necessarily mean more work. Our house and land are on two titles and there was no increase in our conveyancing costs because of it.

O/P I would give it a good declutter as some of the rooms feel small because thee is so much stuff (sorry). It is a lovely house though.

Sadly sometimes land does put people off rather than attract them, so you may have to be prepared for a wait. My house had been on the market for over 2 years when we bought it as the land put so many people off (we have two acres). People can't see past the work involved unfortunately - to us this was a selling point but you just need to wait for that one person who isn't daunted by the land.

You could keep the land you bought separately, sell the house with it’s original garden at market value and then try and get planning permission for another house and sell to a developer, it’s a bit risky though as having land behind your house which the owner is planning to build on could put some people off buying your house, and also there is no guarantee you would get permission, you could then be stuck with a piece of land that no one wants, depends how risk adverse you are.

Cant the estate agents give you some advice regarding the land? Trouble with selling the house on its own is buyers could be put off if there is going to be building going on behind it..... estate agents should be in touch with builders all the time and i wonder why none have come forward - unless they wont pay the price. I wonder if its worth speaking to the local planning department to see if the land can be built on in case there is something which restricts it?

It looks lovely. Can you post the link on some permaculture sites? It’s such a lovely site & you may find the type of people who would bite your arm off in those sorts of sites.

Maybe advertise somewhere like this www.sustainable-properties-forsale.com/sp_properties.html

To put it into perspective as all the talk of selling it is a bit confusing, a football field is an acre. This is a third of an acre. So a third of a football pitch visually . Big for a terrace garden, but not mind bogglingly huge. Mine is three acres and I don't feel it's even mind bogglingly huge. I can't imagine considering selling a sixth of it.

Due to its location it may be very hard to sell to anyone other than the house owner and very few people would be willing to buy a house with a potential for a build in effectively what is their back garden.

So I suspect it's stuck with going with the house. The question is what's the extra garden worth. Clearly only what someone will pay, but there a huge difference in the price of the ops house and ones that have sold in the last few months. Market pricing would say she's about 30k over priced, However if we take the Zoopla estimate of 151, it's still looking for 15k above that.

I think this is the issue. It's looking over priced.😔

Could you ask the other houses that back on to your garden if they want to buy the parcel of land? You'd need a price though.

There's separate access to the land by the look of it. It would be a different matter if it could only be accessed from one of the gardens.

@Bluntness100 I paid £10,000 for the land about 15 years ago when it was just a field of brambles. It now has about 10 productive fruit trees and shrubs, landscaping etc plus a workshop, car park and double gates to the road ...

One of the photos should be an aerial shot with the garden outlined in red. The EA can easily do this for you from a satellite map.
This, definitely. Given that there are still two deeds could you get the description to say 3 bed house plus land to make it clearer? Your description could mention the land registry ID of the connected plot of land as it won't have an address as such.

I’m not in a position to buy at the moment but if I was that would be exactly the kind of house I’d want! I was describing my dream house to my partner the other day and your house matches it almost exactly so I’m sure it’ll be the right house for someone else too

The amount of garden will NOT be putting people off - most people would love to have that lovely outside space. As always, it is the price that puts people off.

Take away the 'offers over' and you'll be likely to get more viewings, at least. I tend to ignore houses marketed as 'offers over' because I always think the sellers are probably control-freaks, who are not serious about selling.

It doesn't actually say how big the garden is. Is it much bigger than it looks on the picture? It doesn't look that big that it should put people off.
It's a first time buyer type house, is it much more than similar houses on the street? Maybe people would rather spend less and have a smaller garden.
I'd have a big declutter, it's a nice house but very busy.

Ok, 10k is a lot. So it may be worth 20/30k now.

I'm not sure though op, I still think it's price. It's lovely, but I think the price is putting folks off. I'm sorry.

Sell the house with only the garden you first bought it with, then you can gauge an appropriate price. Keep the additional land you bought and sell it separately or afterwards.

Sell the land separately! If what @LuluJakey1 has outlined is your land surely it's lucrative for potential for people wanting to use for a variety of reasons or even see if the council will but it from you! (Just a thought! )

I would do as some others have said and de clutter - lovely large house but needs to be depersonalised - you're moving anyway so box everything non essential up and store it away somewhere else

Good luck

That is a beautiful house! If you were near Nottingham then it is just the thing we would be looking at. No helpful advice though I'm afraid.

Ohh I love the kitchen! Isn't it funny, if it was modernised then we would look at it.

I can't believe the EA hasn't got it listed as "3 bed terrace with 1/3 acre land with road access"

The more I think about this, the more I think you should market the land separately. A surveyor will be able to give you an accurate valuation - the EA may be just guessing.