Land prices

[shirepro]

GET OFF MY LAND!!!!!!

How do I price up agricultural land?

I have no garden as such, just a courtyard. My neighbour has offered to sell me a piece of garden about 40ft by 15 ft (67 sq yards) for £15,000. Sounds very costly but would add value to my house. Problem is it isn't actually connected to my house! I would have to walk up his drive to enjoy my lawn, so I have kicked that into the long grass. I would however fancy somewhere to walk the dogs, chill out in the summer etc.


If I am thinking of walking to exercise the dogs a local farmer has a piece of land only 60 yards away which is currently unused. It is walled, as it was once part of a country estate which is no more, and is about 3 acres of large trees, and a short section of overgrown lake. It has remained largely untouched since the 1960's and is now a wash with birds and other wildlife. It has another 7 acre field behind which is down to grass where he graizes his cows at odd times.

I was thinking of approaching him to sell it, either just the overgrown bit or the whole 10 acres (perhaps letting him continue to run his cows on there for mending the fences and walls).

Thing is, I have trawled the net and arable land seems to fetch about £2000 an acre. The overgrown site can't be cultivated (undulates too much and has the lake in the middle, too many large trees in a mixture of species) and he clearly has no use for it. What do you folks think is a fair price for the 3 acre site and the whole lot?

[towman]

shirepro said:

What do you folks think is a fair price for the 3 acre site and the whole lot?

In realistic terms - as much as you are prepared to pay. Land is very difficult to price and is worth whatever the highest bidder says it is. I`ve just paid 75k for something similar, but it was connected to my garden.

[shirepro]

Hells bells, i was thinking of letting the rest of the village have access, but sounds like I would have to install a turnstile with a penny in the slot.

[wacky racer]

You won't get any bargains where land's concerned, out of a farmer....

They're a canny lot.....

[shirepro]

I was thinking of slipping his livestock some infected feed and then moving in when he was about to top himself. I fear it is the only way to beat the bailer twine community in business. I once bought a gate from a farmer whose VAT status changed from registered ("need to add VAT to that price kid" to unregistered ("there's no need to be stupid about it boy", when I asked for a VAT receipt.

[2 Smokin Barrels]

Someone once told me you roughly equate it to expensive carpet.

(mind you.. they were trying to buy part of my garden! )

[MikeyT]

Got no idea what the land you have seen is worth - as people have said - what you want to pay for it.

When my neighbour moved two years ago we bought a bit of land behind his barn - imagine a triangular piece of land with the two shorter edges 25ft each ... we paid £1000 plus the legal fess (£500 or so).

The guy who subsequently bought his house has recently bought a piece back from us - albeit not part of the original piece ... The size was another triangle – 25ft x 4ft – he paid over 3k ... but he wanted it as he's buiulding a bungalow at the end of his garden and needed it for access ...

So it was worth a lot more to him to get it.

[Tuna]

If there is even the slightest hint of the smallest possibility that it could be built upon some time in the next couple of hundred years, you can work on a starting price of half a million an acre You might be able to get a more sensible price if you suggest a covenant that would pass some value back to the current owner if you ever were to develop it. Check with your planning department on the current status of the land (eg. green belt, conservation area, tree preservation orders, listed structures etc. etc.) which might or might not help.

[alexkp]

I can tell you what land is worth.

- Whatever someone will pay for it.

The notion that you are purchasing arable land is not really accurate. Farming land is generally worth £1500 - 2500 per acre. But land for leisure, garden extensions etc is worth whatever you are prepared to pay.

Sometimes land, such as a ransom strip I once dealt with in business, can be worth millions for a piece five feet by twenty.

[shirepro]

No chance of building. It is a conservation area. Although I may want to be buried there, but not yet a while.

I guess the fact it must be zoned as farm land (thus preventing me having an erection on it) will keep the price down. Our local council have nailed people buying land, and then lawning it and planting it up as it changes useage. They have insisted the peopl;e put the dumpede rubbish, old bikes and mounds of soil back.

I might offer him £5000 for the lake and woodland. I just thought the graizing would be 'adjacent pony paddock' when I come to sell.

[alexkp]

shirepro said:

No chance of building. It is a conservation area. Although I may want to be buried there, but not yet a while. I guess the fact it must be zoned as farm land (thus preventing me having an erection on it) will keep the price down. Our local council have nailed people buying land, and then lawning it and planting it up as it changes useage. They have insisted the peopl;e put the dumpede rubbish, old bikes and mounds of soil back. I might offer him £5000 for the lake and woodland. I just thought the graizing would be 'adjacent pony paddock' when I come to sell.

Ultimately, if he is unlikely to sell it to anyone else - he might as well sell it to you. £5k sounds quite fair.

Then there will be nothing to prevent you having an erection on it. Enjoy it all you like!

(So sorry, I couldn't let that one pass and if I handn't someone else would have.... )

>> Edited by alexkp on Tuesday 21st June 23:33

[shirepro]

Oddly I got the erection joke from my solictor, who reminded me I was not to have any erections in the garden without the neigbours written position (both of them). Rather spoiled things and we withdrew from the sale.