Just need to vent - neighbour wants £60,000 for an acre of land

[livelaughlambada]

Urgh, I just want to vent. We love our home - it's in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields. We would really like to buy one acre of land. It's owned by some people who don't farm and don't do anything with it. Land around here is probably £10,000 an acre for farmland. They want £60,000 for the acre. We just don't have it. And if we did, we couldn't possibly justify buying it - as in even if we could borrow the money, there is other stuff that we would spend it on first that is much more 'necessary'. I don't think they believe us, but it is just what it is. One of our kids loves football and would love to play on that land. It's just such a shame that there isn't a way around it. I know that it's absolutely their right and I also know it would add value to our house to buy it (although we will not be moving ever, so that is a long way off - and we just can't spend £60,000 on land that we might actually just have to sell off before the house one day). These people don't do anything at all with the land -- they have about 20 acres and it's just getting covered with brambles and crap (not in a nice rewilding way - just actual crap they've dumped there). They come here maybe once a month. I think their logic is that it would add £60,000 in value to our house (possibly true, I have no idea, but we will not move until the kids have left home and that's a couple of decades away). The MOST annoying thing is that they're somewhere in their sixties/seventies and have told us they don't want to sell because you don't pay inheritance tax on land. So it's worth just having it sit and rot rather than anything else. It's just SO ANNOYING.

And if anyone can think of an amiable way of asking them - it's all perfectly amiable albeit a bit glacial - do let me know!!

I suppose you could ask to get it valued? It's not something I'd feel was worth taking forward though, as they're not going to negotiate from 60k to 10k.

I'd just view their answer as a no.

Might just be worth asking to rent it at a more reasonable rate? They'd lose nothing by agreeing to that.

Thats why they said 60k as they don’t want to sell it really, it needs to be worth their while. It’s just how it is you can’t force them.

They have told you they don't want to sell

I'd view their valuation as them wanting to say no, but feeling that was rude, so pricing it beyond a reasonable amount is basically a more polite way of saying no. Alternatively, they think you are chancers who intend to buy the land, then sell it on or build on it and make a huge profit. Either way, I'd be assuming they aren't up for negotiation.

They don't want to sell it hence the price.

Can’t see them saying no to renting it. Win, win for everyone that way. Ask them to do a year’s rental agreement and how much they’d want to rent.

They are wrong about inheritance tax.

You're right - but I just know that objectively the land is worth £10,000 as farmland (and that's when it's in good condition - all the fences are and it's covered in brambles), but obviously worth more to us. But also not really worth more to us, as we just don't have it. I could justify buying it for a bit more than it's worth and then we could swallow a bit of a loss if we needed to sell it. But I can't possibly spend that much on it. There isn't anyone else who would pay more than £10k for it - they live about two miles away.

But it doesn’t bother them as they don’t want to sell, they’ve literally told you that and then made up a stupid price to be polite.

They really don't want to sell to you.

Are they? I thought you didn't pay inheritance tax on farmland until a certain amount (which is in the millions). They also think that - so would def be helpful if that was the case!).

That's a great idea, but don't do this before getting a planning application for change of use. You can't just turn a field into a football pitch and extended garden.

They do genuinely want to sell it! That's what's so mad about it. They approached us with the price.

I wonder if they will have some tax consequences for selling off a piece of land. I may be wrong here but if it is a farm I think the only way you don't pay IHT is if you don't sell off part.

Farmland is around £10,000 an acre, depending on where in the UK you are, yes, but small parcels of land, eg an acre or smaller, commonly cost much more than this. Ask any land agent. Adding an acre to your garden would not normally cost you only £10,000.

Small packages of land near houses can often fetch £60,000 or so, if you were buying only a quarter of an acre next to your house, it would cost a lot more than £2,500. It’s harder to buy a small piece of land and they are in higher demand and priced accordingly.

If they really don't want to sell they can ask as much as they like for it, being way over market value is irrelevant. If you want it you pay their price, they don't mind either way.

We wouldn't change the use at all - def no gardening. Might mow a space that's it. It wouldn't be flattened out or changed in anyway.

Did you approach them and asked to buy their land if so, they obviously do not want to sell. However, if they approached you, I would see them as opens and negotiation on price

You asked for something. They gave you a monetary value that would prompt them to sell it. You cannot afford it. You don’t actually need this. Why oh why all of your angst? This is really not something you need nor do you have some entitlement to it. You need some perspective on this.

Well that's what a pony paddock attached to a residential property is worth, I'm afraid. It would be more where I live.

And who is expected to clear it, maintain and insure it

Then why did you say they don’t want to sell it due to inheritance tax in your original post? Either they do or they don’t.

I get that it would be more - but it's such a massive increase. And I get it would be inflated next to a village when other people would be interested - but we are in the middle of nowhere.