Buying part of neighbour s garden

[Mr Creosote]

I’d like to buy some of my neighbour’s garden to give me the room for a side extension. I haven’t floated the idea with them yet, and it’s entirely possible that they won’t want to sell anyway, but I thought I’d engage the PH hive mind to get a rough idea of:

a) what the land is worth, and
b) how to go about it.

Their garden is around 24m long (and around 7m wide perhaps) and I’d want to buy around 3.5-4m of the very top of it. Their house was last sold for £560k a few years ago.

My first thought was to just mention it to them to see if it’s something they’d be interested in at all without pursuing further, but then I thought it might be better to go to them with an actual offer, having had the land valued by an EA. There’s a TPO tree right on the boundary, and I thought as a sweetener I could make sure this ended up in my garden, so I assume the responsibility for it. I’d obviously pay all their legals etc.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

[RedWhiteMonkey]

Mr Creosote said:

I d like to buy some of my neighbour s garden to give me the room for a side extension. I haven t floated the idea with them yet, and it s entirely possible that they won t want to sell anyway, but I thought I d engage the PH hive mind to get a rough idea of:

a) what the land is worth, and
b) how to go about it.

Their garden is around 24m long (and around 7m wide perhaps) and I d want to buy around 3.5-4m of the very top of it. Their house was last sold for £560k a few years ago.

My first thought was to just mention it to them to see if it s something they d be interested in at all without pursuing further, but then I thought it might be better to go to them with an actual offer, having had the land valued by an EA. There s a TPO tree right on the boundary, and I thought as a sweetener I could make sure this ended up in my garden, so I assume the responsibility for it. I d obviously pay all their legals etc.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

You can only ask, they may be interested but I suspect the idea of giving up some garden so a neighbour can build something even closer to your own property is unlikely to be tempting to most people.

[Russet Grange]

Everything has its price. Start a discussion and see where it takes you.

[Mr Pointy]

How much less do you think their house will be worth if their garden is 17% smaller & the neighbour’s extension is 4m closer?

Are you hoping to pay £5k or willing to go up to something serious like £75k?

[Byker28i]

Our ex neighbour tried this, wanted to buy our side access, 9 foot wide, so they could extend.
Nope, didn't want the smaller garden, didn't want their house nearer or to lose double gate access into my garden.

It's where my poly tunnel is now

[OutInTheShed]

Almost everyone has their price with this sort of thing.

But that price can be quite high.
It's not just losing x% of your land, it's changing the rest of your land by the neighbour's building being closer.
You say the 'top' of the garden,if that's actual elevation, a neighbour's extension could be very unwelcome.
It's easy to reduce the appeal of a house in the £500/600k league, plenty of others for people to buy.

There may be potential opportunity loss as well, a few metres off a 20 metre garden could mean some other development is no longer feasible.

OTOH, if the extension would have no real impact on the house, then the price could be quite low.
My Dad bought a small patch of land to the side of his house may years ago, the actual land cost less than the legal costs. Despite the legal work being done at mate's rates.

It's a very easy route to poor relationships with the neighbour, you offer them what they see as a paltry sum to compromise your house, and/or you see them as profiteering ransom bandits.

[Mr Creosote]

Mr Pointy said:

How much less do you think their house will be worth if their garden is 17% smaller & the neighbour s extension is 4m closer?

Are you hoping to pay £5k or willing to go up to something serious like £75k?

Genuinely, I can’t imagine it would make much if any difference. Theirs is an identical house to four others, all of which have substantially smaller gardens (less than half the size) but all were sold new at the same price six years ago.

Our house is roughly 2m away from their rear boundary, and would remain so if they did sell and we extended (although our extension would be single storey). They won’t lose any light or access.

The only downside from their POV that I can see is the smaller garden.

[Lotobear]

You amount in valuation terms to a 'special purchaser' so garden land values per se would be meaningless in this case.

They have what you want/need, and they will know that, so it's a good old negotiation/horse trade I'm afraid

[48k]

Mr Creosote said:

My first thought was to just mention it to them to see if it s something they d be interested in at all without pursuing further, but then I thought it might be better to go to them with an actual offer, having had the land valued by an EA. There s a TPO tree right on the boundary, and I thought as a sweetener I could make sure this ended up in my garden, so I assume the responsibility for it. I d obviously pay all their legals etc.

Only you can judge how to approach it but if a neighbour approached me about buying some of my land and instead of just a casual mention to see if I was possibly interested, had already done all the research, had it valued and came straight out at me with an offer it would rub me up the wrong way.

[Mr Creosote]

OutInTheShed said:

Almost everyone has their price with this sort of thing.

It's a very easy route to poor relationships with the neighbour, you offer them what they see as a paltry sum to compromise your house, and/or you see them as profiteering ransom bandits.

This is my fear. I had a figure of £10k in my head. Obviously I don’t want to go too high, but too low could be seen as an insult.

[Mr Creosote]

48k said:

Only you can judge how to approach it but if a neighbour approached me about buying some of my land and instead of just a casual mention to see if I was possibly interested, had already done all the research, had it valued and came straight out at me with an offer it would rub me up the wrong way.

Yes, this is a good point. I’d figured that it if I went to them without a figure expecting them to offer one up, that they’d be within their rights to say, ‘No, you first.’ Far better to offer them a figure which they can decline or accept. But I do see how this could be seen as pushy.

[Mr Pointy]

Mr Creosote said:

Mr Pointy said:

How much less do you think their house will be worth if their garden is 17% smaller & the neighbour s extension is 4m closer?

Are you hoping to pay £5k or willing to go up to something serious like £75k?

Genuinely, I can t imagine it would make much if any difference. Theirs is an identical house to four others, all of which have substantially smaller gardens (less than half the size) but all were sold new at the same price six years ago.

Our house is roughly 2m away from their rear boundary, and would remain so if they did sell and we extended (although our extension would be single storey). They won t lose any light or access.

The only downside from their POV that I can see is the smaller garden.

The developer may have sold them at the same price but I'd suggest that if two came up for sale in the same general condition but one had a garden twice the size of the other then they wouldn't be on the market for the same price now. Buyers very rarely choose to go for a smaller garden.

What are you hoping to pay? You may have to pay more than it is "worth" just for them to be bothered going through the hassle.

[ozzuk]

Mr Creosote said:

This is my fear. I had a figure of £10k in my head. Obviously I don t want to go too high, but too low could be seen as an insult.

As described I'd prob want to 50k-70k and my fees paid. Fees could be a few k for them, especially if they have a mortgage. Mortgage company might also block it. For the hassle, and the increased risk (what if you decide to build to new boundary, or you sell and others do) I'd likely refuse unless it was a really, really good offer.

10k I wouldn't even bother replying .

[48k]

Mr Creosote said:

OutInTheShed said:

Almost everyone has their price with this sort of thing.

It's a very easy route to poor relationships with the neighbour, you offer them what they see as a paltry sum to compromise your house, and/or you see them as profiteering ransom bandits.

This is my fear. I had a figure of £10k in my head. Obviously I don t want to go too high, but too low could be seen as an insult.

10K for 28m2 of a neighbours amenity which allows you to build an extension is too low IMHO.

You probably need to be thinking in terms of paying a percentage of the uplift on the value of your house with the extension on it.

As mentioned above - if the neighbour has a mortgage, their mortgage company may not even allow it.

[Mr Creosote]

ozzuk said:

As described I'd prob want to 50k-70k and my fees paid. Fees could be a few k for them, especially if they have a mortgage. Mortgage company might also block it. For the hassle, and the increased risk (what if you decide to build to new boundary, or you sell and others do) I'd likely refuse unless it was a really, really good offer.

10k I wouldn't even bother replying .

So, roughly 10% of the value of the entire property for 15% of the garden? That sounds high. Naturally, I'd pay any fees they incurred.

48k said:

10K for 28m2 of a neighbours amenity which allows you to build an extension is too low IMHO.

You probably need to be thinking in terms of paying a percentage of the uplift on the value of your house with the extension on it.

As mentioned above - if the neighbour has a mortgage, their mortgage company may not even allow it.

Yes, this was a finger in air number, and I'd viewed it as probably an opening offer to negotiate on.

So, if the extension added, say, £100k to the value of my house, what do we think would be a reasonable sum?

Tbh, if it got into £20-30k territory, I probably wouldn't bother anyway as I could still build the extension, it just wouldn't be optimal.

Thanks everyone for your insights—they've been really useful.

[48k]

Mr Creosote said:

ozzuk said:

As described I'd prob want to 50k-70k and my fees paid. Fees could be a few k for them, especially if they have a mortgage. Mortgage company might also block it. For the hassle, and the increased risk (what if you decide to build to new boundary, or you sell and others do) I'd likely refuse unless it was a really, really good offer.

10k I wouldn't even bother replying .

So, roughly 10% of the value of the entire property for 15% of the garden? That sounds high. Naturally, I'd pay any fees they incurred.

48k said:

10K for 28m2 of a neighbours amenity which allows you to build an extension is too low IMHO.

You probably need to be thinking in terms of paying a percentage of the uplift on the value of your house with the extension on it.

As mentioned above - if the neighbour has a mortgage, their mortgage company may not even allow it.

Yes, this was a finger in air number, and I'd viewed it as probably an opening offer to negotiate on.

So, if the extension added, say, £100k to the value of my house, what do we think would be a reasonable sum?[/b]

Tbh, if it got into £20-30k territory, I probably wouldn't bother anyway as I could still build the extension, it just wouldn't be optimal.

Thanks everyone for your insights they've been really useful.

100k minus your build costs - that would be your "profit" essentially for being able to build the extension. So maybe 30-50% of that as a valuation starter for ten, plus all their costs.

Are there any other factors which could affect the value from their perspective aside from the tree preservation order? Like eg. it's the only sunny spot in their garden or their pets are buried there or there are utilities buried or anything else?

[ozzuk]

Mr Creosote said:

Yes, this was a finger in air number, and I'd viewed it as probably an opening offer to negotiate on.

So, if the extension added, say, £100k to the value of my house, what do we think would be a reasonable sum?

Tbh, if it got into £20-30k territory, I probably wouldn't bother anyway as I could still build the extension, it just wouldn't be optimal.

Thanks everyone for your insights they've been really useful.

Ultimately it comes down to what you both agree (if you can even get close). You want something they have, they have no incentive to sell other than money, and several reasons not to (build risk/mortgage/future value). Your offer should account for that, IMO 10k doesn't cut it, but hey who knows what they think. Have a chat, "I'm thinking of doing this, what ballpark figure would it take for you to sell?" Then zero in from there.

[pacenotes]

The only time I seen this work was when they bought the house with the garden and then took the garden before selling it on.

Both times they did a quick spruce up and sold them on for more than they bought them for.

So in true PH style, Buy the whole house and then take the garden before selling it on

[The Three D Mucketeer]

Would you sell any of YOUR land to neighbour to let them build an extension ?

[Snow and Rocks]

A theoretical valuation from a surveyor or estate agent, if such a thing even exists for something like is, is pretty much useless.

You want to buy it and they almost certainly don't want to sell it. I would ask casually out of interest, but I think it's quite likely they'll refuse unless you offer them a lot or they really need the money.