[MikeM]

There's a parcel of land for sale near us (about a mile away) that we may be interested in buying. Thing is, I have no real idea on the necessary formalities of this. For example, would it be a good idea to get the land surveyed, measured etc? If so, who would do this? The land seems somewhat overpriced 2.3 acres for £35K, though it has several buildings on it and some reletively new fencing done. Any advice welcome.

[robert waddell]

if anything it may be under priced given the location
depends on the buildings somebody may view it as a potential house site  or a development opportunity
desperation verges on insanity with plots and there value

[Rosemary]

Robert's right. Land that might be suitable for development goes for silly prices, compared to agricultural land. The field that was Lot 2 when we bought this went for over £10,000 an acre - to a developer. Folk with horses also like land like that - although 2.3 acres won't graze many horses.

Anything's worth what someone's prepared to pay for it. Depends what you want it for. It's not enough to keep cattle on or many sheep, or breed pigs outdoors, but it would be big enough for poultry, veggies, orchard and weaner pigs.

I would think a chartered surveyor will measure it for you, but you'll need a solicitor for the legal stuff.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

[henchard]

Depends on the quality, whether it has water and electricity etc. but as others say these small plots can fetch a lot. A surveyor could measure it but whether it is worth it is another matter. There are plenty of mapping calculators out there like

http://www.freemaptools.com/area-calculator.htm


or get someone to walk round it with a GPS

[doganjo]

When land is sold it has to be measured for the Land Register - check their website to see if it's already been done.  I'm not 100% sure but I think it may be the responsibility of the seller to have that done prior to sale - a bit like the HIP reports.

[robert waddell]

at one time your large scale o/s map was copied and given with the land on purchase    some deeds had the exact measurements printed        as Annie says things have changed and not for the better at least in Scotland transactions that have not taken  place for over 25 years can throw up some surprises as to where the boundary's are a friend had this problem last year (his new boundary included part of the public road) o/s insisted they were correct and washed there hands of it (old maps going to digital maps) it cost him a 3 month delay in the sale extra expense in legal fees and £800 for a surveyor to come and tell what every body else already knew      one new boundary was in a field where no boundary existed at that point    i also know of a similar problem with another house  they have an agreement   well it will work till they get a bastard of a neighbour that insists the digital plans are the correct ones and tested in court 

[Small Farmer]

Property in England is sold with the title registered at the Land Registry, so you don't have deeds but a certificate of title which defines where it is and lists all obligations which go with it (rights of way, easements, mortgages etc). That's the doc you need to see, and which a solicitor can get ,before any surveyor gets involved.

In East Anglia prime agricultural land hit £10k an acre a couple of years ago.  Land with resi pp is awesomely expensive in the posher bits.  Take the price of the house(s) you will build, deduct the construction cost, deduct a profit margin for the developer and the residual is the land value.  When you can get four £1m houses to the acre, even spending several hundred thousand on each house leaves land a mite pricey.

The South-west is a lot cheaper, but small parcels of land sell at a big premium to agricultural land value because an awful lot of people want a bit of land which they then don't know what to do with.  That's why we farm five of our neighbours' "bits of land"

Check the title and walk the land, especially the boundarys and the access.

[Red]

I was told to get a good land agent we when started looking and they are a god send! they sort out all the legal paperwork, grants etc and lead on the whole sale for us ...

[MikeM]

thanks for the replies all. I must confess to being surprised when some say it's underpriced. I was working on the price of £10k per acre, this works out closer to £15k. Whether the value of the fencing and building (not a house, if I didn't make that clear) should be added on top of the £10k I don't know.

[henchard]

I think your maths needs some help! 2.3 acres at 10K = £23K


Then add on a premium for a small plot etc.

Edit: just realised (following comment below) what you meant -  thought you meant that you were expecting it to be around 15K in total. sorry

In essence as everyone says these plots can be worth a lot and ultimately something is worth what someone will pay for it. I was prepared to pay a premium for our house/land as it's situation was perfect. It was worth it to me but not necessarily so to someone else.

[doganjo]

I think your maths needs some help! 2.3 acres at 10K = £23K
Then add on a premium for a small plot etc.

Don't think it does, math seems right to me.   £15K x 2.3 acres = £35k - that is the price Mike M has been quoted as a guide so he is right that it is being offered at £15k per acre.  But it is possible that there are restrictions on planning in the area so that would keep the value at that level.  When building a house the leading house build magazines recommend  that one third of the total build cost will be for the land.  So if you build a 4 bed bungalow for say £200K you would expect the land to cost about £100K, giving a total build cost of £300K, and probably worth at least half as much again on resale, if not more.  My land came cheap as it was landlocked by ours, no-one else could build on it (£1600), I built my bungalow for £128K (4 double beds, 2 of them en suite, family bathroom same size, dining room, very large lounge, family room/kitchen, decking off dining room, raised patio off family room, large old barn and 10 acres, including CPH.   Sold it for £310K when I decided to move down here and couldn't get anything more than a smaller bungalow and an acre for the same price - so it's all about post code.

[Small Farmer]

There is nothing rational about land prices because there's a lot of emotion that goes with "a bit of land".  As farming land it's overpriced against the return that can be made by farming it - except that in a world with a growing population but a shrinking land supply food should be dramatically more expensive.

Housing land should be falling in value because houses are currently unaffordably expensive at interest rates which have never been so low, well not since the BoE started keeping records in 1694.  Btw I'd put the ratio between house price and land price at 4:1 so a rise or fall in the house price of £1 is £4 on or off the land value.  It can be a great deal more though.

"Hope value" is a big distortion - where people believe that at some point planning permission for something valuable will be granted.  Our land has a covenant prohibiting development plus a ransom strip in case the green belt ever goes away.  These things tend to be counter-productive: in fifty years the owner of the covenant will be unfindable but the covenant will act as a blocker for the surrounding area.

The land is worth what somebody wants to pay for it.  Formal valuation is a matter of looking for comparables - a similar sized piece of land in the same area.  If there's recent evidence then all well and good, otherwise it all depends whether there's other bidders who want it.  Always remember that the people selling may HAVE to sell, or that a fast deal is worth more than a slow and uncertain one.

Good luck

[Remy]

We live in Shropshire and once upon a time it was a fairly cheap place to buy land and houses, however in recent years small plots of land have rocketed in price and those sold particularly for horse grazing fetch about £10k an acre.  An acre plot right next to our house came up for sale and we were very interested in it, purely because of it's proximity to the house and not knowing who might buy it.  The owners knew just how much we wanted it and came up with all kinds of reasons to put an extortionate price on it - we might be able to get planning permission, other people had already offered more etc etc.  We paid way over the odds for it but it was worth it to us for peace of mind.  So yes a bit of land is worth however much someone is willing to pay!

I think land is also something of an investment, property with land always seems to command good prices - purely because the amount of land available is harder to come by.  A lot of farms sell off their land in lots so anywhere with a decent acreage is harder to find, or you have to pay a premium for it.  The fact that this land has buildings on it will also add greatly to it's value - and the location would also be a factor.

[Small Farmer]

Just saw 11 acres of land for sale with planning permission for stables at a bargain £360,000.   It's next door to TAS sponsor GFW Titmuss and across the road from a golf club that went bust before it got built.   I would have thought hope value was about nil because it's well in the green belt in a well nimbyfied area.

£32k an acres!