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.

Also she started off saying 60s/70s from which I assume she doesn’t know how old they are, just that as people older than her they aren’t supposed to own anything.

I thought if that if that argument was dismissed they may be able to talk about getting an independent valuation which would hopefully give everyone a reasonable price.

The price is irrelevant, as is the state of the field and what you want to do with it! They don’t want to sell- take the hint.

£60,000 for an acre is pretty normal in the southeast for a small plot. I say this gently … please think about paying it. If the plot has any kind of road access (I mean any kind). A house near me easy worth £2million and was offered a 1.5 acre plot of crabby brambles and a they refused to pay £70K for it. Guess what, it’s now a caravan park full of statics and tarmacing vans and a 10 year (non) planning war. They’ve made their own house unsaleable and have lost at least £600k off the value. . Obviously this is only relevant if there is anyway of knocking through a hedge onto the land. If it’s landlocked you’re ok.
(done get me wrong, the caravan and people are no problem at all - bit it has had a significant devaluation to their property )
can you afford Not To buy it would be my question ???

Doesn’t matter. It’s not yours. Move on.

actually I'd think that annoying the OP is a great use of the land. I'd keep it just for that.

I'm not sure why you think the owners' grandchildren should forego £XXXX worth of money that could buy them some playspace and give it to the government so that you can have a place for your dc to kick a ball around.

And am interested that the only alternative to kicking a ball around in a small garden is being glued to screens indoors all the time - in a rural area, a National Park no less, surrounded by fields.

We need to warn all the MNers wanting to move to the countryside for the children's sake that unless they can find a house with an acre or half of land their kids will be stuck indoors. Worse off that enjoying the many wonderful parks we have ion cities... Oh woe!

Come on OP - I get it is frustrating but you are being preposterous.

Maybe occupy your child with blackberry picking?

What use is an independent valuation if the land owner is not that bothered about selling it? It seems as if that’s the case, but for £60k they could be tempted. If an ‘independent valuation’ said actually, it’s ‘worth’ £35k then the owner just won’t sell. It doesn’t seem like they need the money. So why should they be taken down a path of negotiating, when they’re not interested?

I can understand its annoying that your neighbour doesnt want to sell you some of their land for a price you can afford.
The price of the land is what someone is willing to sell for and someone is willing to buy for. So, thinking its only worth a) is not helpful.
You could try to negotiate,decide the maximum you would pay and see what they say or try to negotiate a rental agreement?

We have a large garden and the people who live in one of the adjacent houses approached us to buy some of our garden for about £10k and they received a firm no.

By the time we’ve paid for conveyancing fees etc it’s not really going to be worth our while. Also the person let slip she wanted to build a garden office and I really wouldn’t want the hassle of that being closer to our house and the knock on effect on value.

If they were to move to house with a bigger garden it would cost them a lot more than £10k, so I don’t feel obliged to give a piece of my property for such little money.

If they offered me £100k, I might give it some consideration, because I think it would be closer to being worth my while

Entitled much OP?

I’m afraid you sound a bit like a toddler stamping their foot and shouting it’s not fair, just because you can’t have something you want for the price you want. You’ve asked them and had their answer. Whining on mumsnet won’t change their asking price.

If you’re coming accross to them in person like you are coming accross in your pitch for sympathy “it’s not fair, they want £60,000 for something we want, it’s not fair” I’m surprised they haven’t said six million. With the government looking at land for new towns that acre could be worth in excess of £1,500,000!

This. Seems like a fair price.

Why does being surrounded by fields mean that it’s impossible for the OP to have a small garden?

The owners have set their price. why would they care what a valuer said?

I suggest they go get inheritance tax advice as they will most definitely pay IHT on land unless it is being actively farmed and even then with the new IHT APR/BPR allowances in place, they may still need to pay tax.

I don't understand this

You can't afford it and you're sulking

Ok

OP, I'd like to buy your house for £50k.

I don't care what it's market value is or what it's worth to you. You aren't even making the most of it and your children play indoor. I don't have children so it would be much better suited to me. I would make better use of it.
I also think you might be older than me so I should have it.

Am I being unreasonable?

Don't think the OP has ever heard the word no and is currently having a massive toddler tantrum

You must realise how bonkers your reasoning sounds. I’m fairly certain Buckingham palace could be much better used by housing numerous homeless families, but Charlie boy isn’t under any obligation to sell it at an undervalue because it may serve a better purpose.

There's a good chance that they're just making vague comments to the OP about IHT because they're really not interested in selling to her and rather than just saying, No, they're making up excuses.