Silly development questions
Discussion
Silly question time... Mrs DG and I look at property in cheaper parts of the country (retirement dreams), frequently these seem to come with more land than we'd be happy with (1/2 acre or more). With this in mind is it a viable proposition to buy something, say 3/4 acre, and then give off part of that and have a chat with a local builder he can have the land with no capital outlay - that comes once his new build property has been sold (one house only type of thing)...
Short answer: very often, no.
The plot would usually also need to be within (or contiguous to) the defined boundary of a settlement that has been assessed by Planning of being 'sustainable', which in current Planning terms means that it needs to be big enough to comprise (or located in close proximity to) sufficient services and infrastructure not to require excessive use of private transport for day-to-day living.
Sometimes you'll get lucky and find somewhere viable for this approach (though you'll be doubly lucky if the owner or estate agent hasn't spotted the potential themselves and added a stinking great overage clause), but if you think this is the case, speak to a Planning Consultant before committing yourself.
The plot would usually also need to be within (or contiguous to) the defined boundary of a settlement that has been assessed by Planning of being 'sustainable', which in current Planning terms means that it needs to be big enough to comprise (or located in close proximity to) sufficient services and infrastructure not to require excessive use of private transport for day-to-day living.
Sometimes you'll get lucky and find somewhere viable for this approach (though you'll be doubly lucky if the owner or estate agent hasn't spotted the potential themselves and added a stinking great overage clause), but if you think this is the case, speak to a Planning Consultant before committing yourself.
Cheers Equus - it's not something we'd be looking at specifically for that reason. More along the lines of "...this property is lovely, there's just too much land for people with no interest in gardening (and/or a desire to take 30-60 day holidays) to maintain; if some could he hived off it would be perfect..."
It does seem that we're 'going against the grain' looking for a nice house and reasonable garden rather than (what seem to be) the norm of 1/3 acre minimum please
It does seem that we're 'going against the grain' looking for a nice house and reasonable garden rather than (what seem to be) the norm of 1/3 acre minimum please
I should probably add that even if you manage to find such a property in a suitably 'sustainable' location, which hasn't had its development potential spotted already, then the design of the proposed additional development will also need to respect the prevailing development density in the area.
... which means that you're looking for somewhere on a whacking big plot, but which is surrounded by much denser housing on smaller plots.
You'll appreciate that once you start adding all these requirements on top of one another, the number of properties that meet them all is vanishingly small.
Where I have come across them in the past, a surprising number have been old vicarages, which tend to be set in the centre of the village (next to the church) on a large plot (because the one thing the church wasn't short of was land), surrounded by small cottages. But then you often have the added complication that either the church and/or the vicarage itself is often listed.
... which means that you're looking for somewhere on a whacking big plot, but which is surrounded by much denser housing on smaller plots.
You'll appreciate that once you start adding all these requirements on top of one another, the number of properties that meet them all is vanishingly small.
Where I have come across them in the past, a surprising number have been old vicarages, which tend to be set in the centre of the village (next to the church) on a large plot (because the one thing the church wasn't short of was land), surrounded by small cottages. But then you often have the added complication that either the church and/or the vicarage itself is often listed.
We're considering making a planning application to do something very similar with our current plot. Either carve off half the plot and build on it, or knock down the existing house and build three.
Or, get as far as obtaining planning permission for the above and then sell.
This may well be a pipe-dream. We have an architect (recommended by a ph'er) coming to visit the site and prepare a feasibility report in September.
Given the complexity outlined above, this probably has a 'vanishingly small' chance of success, but at least we'll have eliminated the 'ooh, we should have......" thoughts in years to come.
Or, get as far as obtaining planning permission for the above and then sell.
This may well be a pipe-dream. We have an architect (recommended by a ph'er) coming to visit the site and prepare a feasibility report in September.
Given the complexity outlined above, this probably has a 'vanishingly small' chance of success, but at least we'll have eliminated the 'ooh, we should have......" thoughts in years to come.
Equus said:
I should probably add that even if you manage to find such a property in a suitably 'sustainable' location, which hasn't had its development potential spotted already, then the design of the proposed additional development will also need to respect the prevailing development density in the area.
We'd have no desire to be surrounded so a (singular) extra house would seem perfect, not worth a developers effort to buy and do up etc (not enough profit vs risk) which is where my thinking was going.Oh well
<walks off kicking the cat> Just to show that every now and then all the stars do align, here's one I did a few year ago - probably the most extreme example I've done, in fact:
The pink tint is the original house (which was the old vicarage) and what's left of its curtilage, which we sold on for damned near what we paid for it (admittedly after tarting it up a bit).
The yellow tint used to be its garden, orchard and tennis court, which we built, from memory, 17 new houses on. Since the land cost for the new plots was effectively next to nothing, we made a hell of a killing on the scheme.
The pink tint is the original house (which was the old vicarage) and what's left of its curtilage, which we sold on for damned near what we paid for it (admittedly after tarting it up a bit).
The yellow tint used to be its garden, orchard and tennis court, which we built, from memory, 17 new houses on. Since the land cost for the new plots was effectively next to nothing, we made a hell of a killing on the scheme.
Here is a novel idea, exceptions aside:
Don't buy a house a nice bit of land around it, and then be a greedy cock and smash some grotty in-fill onto it, so that the next generation can't have a nice house with a nice garden/field attached even if they wanted to and had the money.
If you want to develop land, there is a huge amount of land that isn't on the doorstep of a nice house. Some of that is even brown field.
Daniel
Don't buy a house a nice bit of land around it, and then be a greedy cock and smash some grotty in-fill onto it, so that the next generation can't have a nice house with a nice garden/field attached even if they wanted to and had the money.
If you want to develop land, there is a huge amount of land that isn't on the doorstep of a nice house. Some of that is even brown field.
Daniel
dhutch said:
Here is a novel idea, exceptions aside:
Don't buy a house a nice bit of land around it, and then be a greedy cock and smash some grotty in-fill onto it, so that the next generation can't have a nice house with a nice garden/field attached even if they wanted to and had the money.
And what about the 17 households of the next generation that can't have a house of any sort, even if they wanted to, because the land supply isn't there?Don't buy a house a nice bit of land around it, and then be a greedy cock and smash some grotty in-fill onto it, so that the next generation can't have a nice house with a nice garden/field attached even if they wanted to and had the money.
dhutch said:
Here is a novel idea, exceptions aside:
Don't buy a house a nice bit of land around it, and then be a greedy cock and smash some grotty in-fill onto it, so that the next generation can't have a nice house with a nice garden/field attached even if they wanted to and had the money.
If you want to develop land, there is a huge amount of land that isn't on the doorstep of a nice house. Some of that is even brown field.
Daniel
Don't buy a house a nice bit of land around it, and then be a greedy cock and smash some grotty in-fill onto it, so that the next generation can't have a nice house with a nice garden/field attached even if they wanted to and had the money.
If you want to develop land, there is a huge amount of land that isn't on the doorstep of a nice house. Some of that is even brown field.
Daniel
Equus said:
And what about the 17 households of the next generation that can't have a house of any sort, even if they wanted to, because the land supply isn't there?
I mean currently the UK population is falling.But they have also just knocked down a huge factory near us and built a housing estate on it.
Plenty more houses due for the derelict docklands around here too, which done well is good development of land.
Daniel
dhutch said:
I mean currently the UK population is falling
No it isn't. It's growing at a reduced rate to previously (currently running at about 0.5% growth), but it's still growing.
Current Government projections are that the population will increase by about 4.8 million over the next 20 years.
For various socio-economic reasons, the number of households is actually growing faster than the population, as well (ie. average number of people in a household is reducing; the number of single person households, for example, has risen by 4% in 10 years). So if you want to generalise, it's fair to say that the requirement is to reduce the size of houses, on average, not to protect the larger ones.
If you're going to have a spittle-flecked rant, at least get your facts right.
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