Does no one want a bungalow?

[Chaletbungalow]

I have my bungalow up for sale.

Every viewer we have had has loved it but as it is on a road with huge 3 storey houses and it has a good sized plot similar to the other houses
Every viewer has wanted to knock it down and build a big house on the plot.

The problem is about 15 years ago I tried to do what other potential buyers want to do and that was to knock it down and rebuild.
The problem was first finding an architect who would actually deal with the local planning department. Once they knew the planning department the architects refused to touch it.

Eventually found an architect out of the area.
I would put in plans of what I thought was a sensible house.
The planning officer would say to change certain things. I would tell my architect what needed changing. The revised plans would be submitted then there would be something else that needed changing etc etc then they would say it needed to change again and what they described was the first plans I showed them. Then the whole thing would start again.

This went on for about 2 year before I gave up. It was like dealing with a group of people who were pathological liars and you couldn’t trust what they said.
No one would believe me when I told them what they did or said.
My architect tried to deal with them at one point to no avail and told me to give up and refused to deal with them again.

Soon after I had given up they met their match with another person who had tried and succeeded on appeal to get planning. I won’t go into details but it culminated in virtually all of the planning department being dismissed.

We did go ahead and put in for planning at one point (unfortunately I couldn’t go to the meeting otherwise I would have spotted the errors and pulled it out of the meeting on the night)
The planning officer we were dealing despite having all the figures and room sizes put down her own version for heights of rooms so it looked like the height of the house would look like a tower block.
I.e ceiling height for the ground floor was 2.4m. Ceiling height that was put before committee was 24m. Then it was drawn so it looked like the house spread up to the boundary on either side.

It was a complete mess.

Don’t get me started on the cubic footage. Even basic maths didn’t add up. Eg living room was put down as eg 24m height x 6 metres width x 10m length=1,159,997 cubic metres

The problem I am having is their refusal is on my planning history and because of this the people who want to buy the place are seeing this and don’t want to proceed.

They don’t see the ridiculous rehashed plans and the made up figures that didn’t add up which led to the refusal.

A development has since gone up down the road on what was green belt land and other people have extended to the side and out the back and our other ndn has had a massive side and back extension so I am thinking that if someone came along now with a hopefully more sensible planning dept they would get their plans through.

Otherwise how do I get someone who actually wants to live in the place as a bungalow without them looking at it and going down the development potential route

Or someone to look at the history of the planning department and realise that the refusal was not because they objected to any house being built on the plot but because of the fictitious height and spread of the plans.

Unfortunately because of new practices you can’t talk to the planning department anymore

Why don't you get planning permission yourself instead. Then it won't matter what's happened. If I was looking to buy I wouldn't believe your explanation but planning permission granted can't be argued with.

@pandafunfactory

Why don't you get planning permission yourself instead. Then it won't matter what's happened. If I was looking to buy I wouldn't believe your explanation but planning permission granted can't be argued with.

This. Get PP granted yourself for the kind of property that a buyer is likely to want.

I'm sure someone will love it and for many people a bungalow is essential for reasons of mobility.
I wouldn't want one myself, but my reasons are weird and irrational and will have no bearing on others!

There’s estate agents and property management companies that specialise in redevelopment projects like this and are used to dealing with the planning process and building regs. Do a quick google search and contact them, may be a quick sale as they’re not having to deal with any end of lease/sale themselves so your chain is simpler.

We don’t have time or the money.

It would be at least 3 months to get planning. 4 or 5 months if there is any issues. Then I still have to sell the place.

Personal circumstances mean we need to move quickly and time is precious. That is why we have priced the place to go.

I think people are viewing it as a well priced bungalow. Then seeing the road and other houses and suddenly seeing pound signs

Where I live, bungalows are at a real premium. So many folk who now want a bungalow because of age / mobility issues, but don't want to move from their own area. Bungalows go for a fortune.
It does seem to depend where you live.

I do think they have a premium on them as they tend to have wider plots.
This place has the biggest driveway in the road and can park comfortably 6/7 cars.

Yes bungalow tend to have the reputation as old people’s houses
Inside though mine has 3 reasonably sized double/king sized bedrooms on the ground floor it has a big master suite upstairs and is all painted white with oak flooring/porcelain tiles, chrome radiators and granite work surfaces and is very modern as opposed to the usual bungalows I have seen in the past with small pokey rooms, patterned carpet and frilly net curtains.

If anything we have under priced the place by £50k for a quick sale as time is not in our side

I am just wondering whether because of the price we are only getting those that want to develop.

We’re about to go on the market and are looking at a bungalow. Unlikely to want to go up. Will be looking at extending but under permitted development.

I don't really think the problem is likely to be underpricing - few houses languish because they're underpriced. Nor is it likely to be particularly helpful for us to tell you that bungalows are totes in demand elsewhere. If there isn't a market for modern bungalows in your area at your price point then there isn't. If it isn't selling and you need it to sell quickly, and your experience is that viewers want to knock it down and build a family house instead, then I think your choices are:

1. sell at auction and risk a lower price than you'd like
2. do as a Pp suggested and pitch it to a developer
3. get planning permission for the type of conversion buyers want
4. drop the price and see what happens.

Planning rules have been relaxed a lot in the last 15 years. Just sell the place with potential to develop subject to planning. What happens after sale is not your concern! Your previous dramas are not particularly relevant to a new owner (beyond the official records of failed planning applications and reasons why)

If it isn't selling after a reasonable time on the market then you are probably asking too much.

I have to say that I hate bungalows - they’re just not for me. My mum has a similar hatred but my dad has some mobility issues which will only get worse as he gets older and so they need to move. What she wants is a bungalow with stairs. (Not actually a bungalow by definition but never mind!) Your house would probably work for her, but what we’ve seen is that houses like yours aren’t shifting in our area.

According to the estate agents, people who need everything on one level due to mobility issues want a genuine bungalow without wasted space upstairs that they can’t access, and people like me who want a family home, don’t want the “short, squat style” of a bungalow/semi bungalow. Like I said, it would work for my parents (if anyone could ever persuade my dad of the need to move!) but I suspect while my mum would like it based on the practicality of it, she may not like it from the kerb appeal side of things as it sounds like it’s very hemmed in/overlooked by larger/taller houses.

I loooove bungalows but I've already bought my forever home. There will be interest, but the problem is how quick? I think that some people would rather wait at the moment to see what tge economy will be like. T

I don’t understand, how did the committee members not realise 24m height for a single house was a typo, why didn’t your planning consultant point it out in the meeting, and practically the whole planning team being dismissed because of a one house scheme? All sounds a bit odd. I would definitely not recount this story to buyers as it all sounds a bit strange and would not do you any favours especially if they are looking to work with the department to redevelop the site. Like pp said I would get permission yourself if you can, might take the same time to sell the place anyway. I guess otherwise you have to wait it out or reduce the price.

I’d love a bungalow due to mobility issues but they’re very expensive I’ve found, and I don’t have a large income due to my mobility issues. They’re also not built anymore are they? I never see them on new build estates at all. In fact all new builds seem to built almost exclusively with the able bodied in mind. No room for stair lifts or to get a wheelchair around a kitchen. We lived in a new build for years while we rented and I was forced to crawl around it as you couldn’t fit my wheelchair around any of the corners or through the doors etc. The few bungalows that are around, as you said, are being knocked down to build bigger multi storey houses thus making bungalows even more scarce and therefore more expensive again.

I want a bungalow as I bloody hate living in a two-storey house (where I grew up most houses are single storey) and I have some mobility issues. Finding one that hasn't been built into the roof is nigh impossible.

We'll likely have to build our own.

The trend is bungalows seem to be quite sought after these days as the population becomes more elderly. Also they are hardly building any new ones. Is your estate agent any good and is it priced to sell.

I don't think many people do want a bungalow if they don't have to have one for accessibility reasons. I would never even view a bungalow. But the market of people who are only looking for bungalows is pretty sizeable, so you either need to be patient or drop the price and sell to one of them. If it's not desirable to that market (e.g. if it's in a location that the elderly are unlikely to want) you'll have drop the price further. If you're not in a position to sort out planning permission yourself then I don't really see what else you could do.

Have you considered selling by auction, you can set a reserve price that you won’t sell below?

I agree with Zarara. Do not mention anything about the previous bizarre encounter as tbh it would sound to me like you aren’t telling the truth. How no one notice the mistake regarding 24m is beyond me - not to mention the other things. All seems a bit odd

Certainly didn’t mention it as didn’t meet the viewers. It was the feedback from the agent the potential buyer looked up the planning history of the house and saw that we had put in for planning years ago and it hadn’t got through

The problem was the planning officer was the one who got the heights wrong and the committee only went with what was in front of them.
Common sense or just a double take at the figures was not there.

At the time I felt like I was telling people what was happening and no body believed me.
It was like it couldn’t happen because the planning department were professional and what i was saying wouldn’t have happened as they wouldn’t get something so wrong.

I'm surprised you didn't appeal at the time.

I'd look at the plans you had previously. Check them against current guidelines. I'm sure they would now be acceptable as the rules have softened considerably. Re-submit them as they are asap, or get a local planning agent to check them vs current rules and prepare you a report to say the plans are compliant and fall within current rules.

I'd go for a bungalow if I could get a bungalow with the square footage I needed in an area I wanted.

They have a limited market. You need to get the planning stuff cleaned up, yourself, if you want to overcome that.

At the time I had spent 3 years on and off trying to get what the planning department wanted and had just been led around in circles and I was exhausted.

I should add I did put in a planning application about a year later to knock down and rebuild a more up to date bungalow on the site that was not going over the footprint/height etc of what we have now. We worked it out that it would have cost very similar money to start again with a blank canvas and get an interior that we wanted rather than have to work around supporting walls and existing pipework etc

That too got rejected.

Ariela you can’t just get someone to look over plans anymore.

You have to pay and atm we don’t have the money or the time to go down that route.

With Covid I would imagine the normal 3 month wait when plans are submitted will be something like 7 months now at least,

Friend in a different area has been told it will be at least 4 months just to answer a query about one of the questions on a form.

You can only actually talk to my planning department in a 2 hour window each week.

If you miss the time or they are engaged then you have to wait another week.
Even then you can’t ask specific questions about your property till you have filled out a form and paid

Everyone loves the house and there isn’t an issue over the price. it is just they want to knock it down and start again and then they look on line and just see it was rejected they don’t want to take the chance.

The details about what was on the application is no longer there.
Just a copy of the rejection letter.

There are more detailed copies of plans going back a few years but this was many many years in the past.

@Chaletbungalow in order to sell you need to stop fixating on the past planning issues and look at who will buy your property in the way it is now.

You say viewers love it but then they want to build house on the plot, so they don’t love it. They are dreaming of the get rich property development lifestyle. But they’re amateurs at that so any issue like planning makes that look too hard.

Developers. That’s your market. Quick sale, won’t be so fussed as a regular residential purchaser about planning. You need to market your house in different ways. Auction would be better for you.