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.

As an agricultural valuer, you are in pony paddock territory which are in the region of £60k+ per acre. The £10k an acre is based on larger expanses of land, not paddocks.

A valuer will also consider the marriage value factor, this means that your house will be inherently more valuable by combining the two plots than they will be equally on their own.

Honestly, it seems reasonable.

This did make me chuckle as so true. I have neighbours who built a bridge from their property to an island in the middle of a river. Set up a jungle gym, swings etc. Used as a dog run, wood for the stove. It’s probably about an acre and a half of woodland. Nobody else has been using it for as long as they/ previous neighbours lived there which is over 50 years. Its on the border of a big estate.

I’m not as bad but I have stuck a trampoline / campfire site / ninja line onto the strip of land that runs along the side of the access road which functions as my driveway and the river. No one else uses the road ( I do have access rights) so I need to cut back tree branches, Strim the grassy middle, chainsaw the odd tree that falls across it and purchase a couple of tonnes of type 1 to fill in the pot holes every year.

i am clearly clueless. What is the difference between farmland and a Pony paddock?

Isn’t a Pony paddock just a piece of land fenced with a Pony in it?

If I was you, I'd just be looking to rent it for a few years. It should be cheaper, you get to use it while your boys are young and they get to keep it. Win win!

That's not how valuations work though. Surveyors are always going to take marriage value into account when selling to an adjacent owner

"...have told us they don't want to sell because you don't pay inheritance tax on land."

It sounds as though they don't really understand the situation.

To qualify for Agricultural Relief then the land must actually be used for agricultural purposes, ie you (or a tenant if you let out the land) must actually be doing farming on that piece of land for it to count.

This can either be growing crops or raising animals on pasture. But either way the land must be being actively farmed to qualify.

From your description:

"...it's just getting covered with brambles and crap (not in a nice rewilding way - just actual crap they've dumped there)."

It doesn't sound as though it is being farmed and so won't qualify.

Also, a married couple can leave up to £1 million to their children/grandchildren without paying any inheritance tax at all.

Are properties near you in the £1 million plus bracket? If so, they may think that this will save some inheritance tax but unless they start farming it then this plan isn't going to work.

Don’t they have to be doing something to the land in order to qualify for a reduced in inheritance tax?
I thought it had to be worked in some way if it’s farmland either by yourselves or a tenant..
Regardless they want a specific price, you don’t want to pay it.
I would offer to rent it if you really want to use it and it was sensibly priced.
As your kids grow up into adults an extra acre won’t be used by them much, it also means you don’t have to maintain in long term either.
They’ll want more then the farm land price because if you could get a change of use for it, and popped an annexe etc on it, it would significantly increase your house value.

If I had the opportunity and the money I'd really want to buy it.
If they really won't come down in price then I might just hold my nose (if I had lots of money in the bank anyway)

I would love an acre.

Friend lives in a very rural area and paid £100k for 2 acre field next to their house, so almost the same as the price they’ve offered. It’s added at least that amount to their house. Land next to houses cannot be viewed simply as agricultural land.

It’s ridiculous to want to pay 10k. It will cost them at least that for professional surveying and conveyancing. Not worth their while.

That's not a bad suggestion. I'd at least enquire if it's something they'd be willing to do, as it's possible you won't be that bothered for the land any more in perhaps a decade.

Yes, but the value is significantly higher. Pony paddocks are generally scarce, there is a strong market for equestrian land/small holding size plots that drives up values. Pony paddocks are also worth a lot more for rental than large blocks of grazing/arable because it’s for a hobby. If the land doesn’t currently have road frontage, it will be getting it through the property which pushes up value too.

This land will also include the hope value for development as it is next to a residential property and the marriage value.

As others have said, you really need to be buying large amounts at a time to get that price.

"Where?"

All over the place. For example, in Lincolnshire.

These are prices for the land only:

50.4 hectares (124.56 acres) for £1,200,000 or £9,634 per acre near Louth.

Or 97.8 hectares (241.8 acres) plus a yard for £2,200,000 or £9,098 per acre also near Louth.

Or 140.9 hectares (348.25 acres) for £3,060,000 or £8,787 per acre near Bourne.

.

"...unless it's somewhere with no access"

That's not always the case. For example, once again in Lincolnshire, there's a much smaller plot going to auction in a couple of weeks time. It's 9.75 acres with access from a road and has a guide price of £100,000 or £10,256 per acre.

Although, whether it will go for more (or even a lot more) than the guide price I have no idea. Here is a link:

https://www.barnardmarcusauctions.co.uk/auctions/23-june-2026/699186/

Curve ball - could you offer to rent it from them for five years?

edit - sorry I’ve just seen someone else suggest this

It has to be actually farmed to avoid inheritance tax. This is copied from an Internet search but tallys with a few websites.

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What are the rules on inheritance tax on land in the UK

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Response 1
In the UK, inheritance tax (IHT) on land depends on what kind of land it is and who inherits it.
General inheritance tax rules
When someone dies, their estate (including land) is usually subject to IHT at 40% on the value above the available tax-free allowances. The main allowances are:
£325,000 nil-rate band
Up to £175,000 residence nil-rate band if a qualifying home passes to direct descendants
Unused allowances can usually be transferred between spouses or civil partners, potentially giving a married couple up to £1 million of combined allowances.
If the land is ordinary land
Examples:
Building plots
Investment land
Woodland not qualifying for relief
Land held for development
The land's market value is normally included in the estate and taxed under the standard IHT rules.
If the land is farmland
Agricultural land may qualify for Agricultural Property Relief (APR), which can significantly reduce or eliminate IHT.
Qualifying property can include:
Farmland and pasture
Farm buildings
Farm cottages and farmhouses (subject to conditions)
Certain agricultural shares and securities.
To qualify, the land generally must have been:
Occupied for agricultural purposes for at least 2 years if owner-occupied; or
Owned for 7 years if occupied by someone else.

What a dilemma!

@Freshcoolair I mean, all very well but the owners, irrespective of their wish to avoid IHT, don't want to sell to the OP for a daft price, which is what she wants them to do?

I'm not quite sure why your children's needs are more important than a "couple of seventy somethings" whose land it actually is?!?! You are coming across extremely entitled - although you may not actually mean it that way. If it is important to you, and hence your children, then move to a house that already has an acre of land to play football on. You cannot dictate to anyone else what they should do with their own land (for your children's enjoyment).

You don't need a planning application for simply mowing and de-brambling a field.
Especially one in the middle of the nowhere, that has been unused for many years.

I think asking if you can rent it is a very sensible suggestion.

Already suggested - OP unwilling to rent and clear brambles for kids's football pitch if they didn't get to keep it! 🙄

You're thinking of your children. They're thinking of theirs.

Do you have no garden at all?

This.

I think you should sell your house and buy another house in the middle of nowhere with about an acre of land for about £10,000 more than you can sell your house for

You need a BNG survey along with change of use application.

We bought extra land at the back of our garden - 50 foot x 50 foot, for £20k about 6 years ago. We're in SE. 1 acre at £10k is never going to happen! The land is worth more as part of residential property as it is as farm land. Why don't you go back and negotiate. Be aware it could he bought by someone else and built on...