how can I get a valuation on someone else’s land?

[iwishiwasafish]

We are wanting to make a speculative offer on some land that we know is about to go on the market.

I am prepared to offer above market value e.g. happy to pay 2-3 times market value, but don’t want to accidentally offer 10 times market value (and certainly don’t want to accidentally offer below).

Any idea how I can get a professional valuation on it.

I only have (limited) experience in buying/selling houses, not land) where it’s been a case of just “phone the estate agent”. I have to assume that wouldn’t apply here because I am buying not selling.

For land valuation look for a RICS land surveyor. Is it garden, building plot or agricultural? The permitted use and any covenants make a huge difference in value.
Have you obtained the record from land registry yet?

Thanks @Rollercoaster1920 that’s really helpful. It’s garden ground. Currently garden ground of another property, which we want to make additional garden ground of our new build.

Yes, I’ve got the land registry record.

We bought garden off a neighbour. Rics surveyor valued, but I think he took a strong steer from my neighbour who sold it to us (he was very kind to us, a fair / lowish value). It totally depends on how much your neighbour will want for it.

When we bought a strip of land off our neighbour he basically told us we could have 'half a building plot at the price of half a building plot' even though he hadn't actually got planning permission at the time - but we knew he'd get it. Tbh we just took his word on the price as we desperately wanted/needed the land and we were planning on staying here for many years so was worth it to us. We also covered all his legal fees.

But I'm sure a land agent/surveyor could have given us a value.

The problem here is that the seller wants to package up with other land and sell as a single lot on the open market. We want to speculatively offer enough for it to be worth his while to carve this bit off and sell separately to us first. Problem is, I have no idea how much that might be. I don’t even know how much the larger lot might go for.