Buying Land - Mostly so gypsies dont

[Dixie]

I recently moved house to a slightly more rural location. Sadly only a month after moving in the field to the front of my house (The boundary is roughly 5 meters from the end of my drive) has come up for sale. The plot is roughly 3 acres and is listed as arable.

Our concern is that the local gypsie contingent will snap up this land and move in. There's a few sites around the area that were bought for equestrian use but when building the stables they accidentally added multiple static caravans. The council took a tough stance on their disregard for local planning restrictions and did absolutely nothing.

One of my neighbors has already been round and invited us round tonight to discuss potential solutions.

We're not a community of powerfully built directors of multiple companies or anything like that so buying the land will be a stretch (assuming the value we have in our head is correct).

Does anyone have any experience of green belt land ownership? An idea of how much it might cost (Google claims £8k-£10k per acre)?

Cheers,

[gashead1105]

Massively depends on which area of the country you are in, what covenants there are on the land and whether there is any likelihood of getting planning permission on it.

Assuming you are in the SE of England but far enough away from London for London premiums to apply, then land without planning permission at c8-10k per acre is reasonably realistic. Probably the same in the rest of the country as well. If you are on the outskirts of London than even without planning permission it could be 80-100k per acre. And with planning permission you would be looking at up to c1m per acre. What is the price you've been quoted?

If you do manage to buy it, you will still need to think about keeping it secure in order that you don't find undesirables simply moving in overnight. Large concrete posts are common round where I live...

[boyse7en]

A three-acre plot is highly desirable for a multitude of uses.
Even if planning for a house or development of houses is out of the question a small area like that will be snapped up by a horse owner to keep Dobbin and a couple of his friends on.

How is going to be sold? Auction? Best offer? Sealed bids?
Is there an agricultural tie (ie. if you buy it, do you have to grow a crop on it?

[Munter]

I wonder if there's any sort of grant/subsidy available for growing a small wood. A sort of "save the birds/squirrels/voles" type thing.

[C Lee Farquar]

boyse7en said:

Is there an agricultural tie (ie. if you buy it, do you have to grow a crop on it?

I believe this is exclusive to dwellings, but there could be covenants.

[Dixie]

The land is in Derbyshire on the outskirts of Chesterfield so should have any reason to be above the normal going rate. Theres also a lot of new housing development already underway so as well as being unlikely to be bought by a property developer due to it being green belt, theres also not such a demand for more potential housing estates. And theres a 50% overage on it which will no doubt put developers off.

The auction type is informal tender. So sealed bids by the beginning of Feb.

If we are successful the'll be a good sturdy gate going up ASAP. The land is on a slight slope which could also put any unwanted guests off just turning up.

[Munter]

Munter said:

I wonder if there's any sort of grant/subsidy available for growing a small wood. A sort of "save the birds/squirrels/voles" type thing.

Turns out there are all sorts of grants you can get for planting trees and creating woodland. There's even payments to maintain it.

Anyway, just a thought. Given it's hard to put caravans on land that's full of trees.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6dcegu
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/trees...
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countrys...

[Dixie]

Munter said:

Munter said:

I wonder if there's any sort of grant/subsidy available for growing a small wood. A sort of "save the birds/squirrels/voles" type thing.

Turns out there are all sorts of grants you can get for planting trees and creating woodland. There's even payments to maintain it.

Anyway, just a thought. Given it's hard to put caravans on land that's full of trees.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6dcegu
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/trees...
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/countrys...

Thank you for that. that definitely could be an option.

Here the link to the land in question if anyone's interested.

http://fishergerman.reapitcloud.com/fsgrps/pdf.php...

Edited by Dixie on Friday 13th January 13:12

[Willy Nilly]

commercial arable land in big blocks has gone for over £14,500 around here. You might need £40,000/acre for that. The pikies haven't had to worry about paying tax on the money they might pay for it.

When selling small blocks to house holders it is very often based on how much the land will increase the value of the house for. You won't get it for arable rates.

[V8RX7]

Dixie said:

Thank you for that. that definitely could be an option.

Here the link to the land in question if anyone's interested.

http://fishergerman.reapitcloud.com/fsgrps/pdf.php...

Great - looks ideal for a caravan park I was planning.

I've just had similar and didn't buy it because I don't want it and it's 100m away.

3Ac sold for £38k

Obviously if it ends up with caravans on it I'll wish I had.

[boyse7en]

C Lee Farquar said:

I believe this is exclusive to dwellings, but there could be covenants.

Yes, you're right, I used the wrong terminology.

[Cheib]

Interesting topic! I'm about to approach a person who owns a six acre field behind our house...it's Green Belt and AONB (Chilterns) and is effectively land locked with no long term access. I was thinking of £10k an acre as being a reasonable offer.

[ellroy]

OP if it is arable land as you say the value will depend on the class of arable land to a good extent.

Take a look at the latest RICS survey for more details, the average in 2016 was around £22k/hectare in the first half of last year, but it is falling a bit.

[C Lee Farquar]

I think the chances of anyone buying it to grow cereals are minute.

[SonicHedgeHog]

Buy it. We have a field over the road from us. A generous acre I'd say. I'd pay £75k for that if it came up for sale. The value of my house would drop by at least that much if undesirables moved in.

[Dixie]

It's grade 4 arable land so it's use for farming is negligible. It's likely just going to be for equestrian use.

There's already a few other plots around us that are used for keeping horses on so fingers crossed that's what this will be used for.

[rambo19]

Buy it and maybe approach the council about turning it into allotments?

[anonymous-user]

May be worth asking the agent outright how much.

They may give an indication and I can't see there being a frenzied bidding war for it.