Property developers queuing up to buy my garden

A question about : Property developers queuing up to buy my garden

My wife and I will be selling our house and moving to a smaller home when I retire. In the meantime, several property developers have shown interest in buying a section of our garden, along with next door's, to build a small development of new homes. We think we should probably sell the land first, because it seems likely that we will get better overall value by selling the land and the house separately. Also, if we don't do it, whoever buys our house probably will. Just wondering if there's anyone out there with some advice on how to get the best deal, or indeed whether it's a good idea at all, or whether there are any pitfalls we need to look out for.
Thanks in anticipation!

Best answers:

• I would get out-line planning permission yourselves; team up with the neighbour and have a chat with the planners.
  Cost less than Ј300 and we got that back handsomely.
  Then put up a fence and sell the house. Chances are it will make little difference to the sale price.
  And unless the law has changed by selling the plot and then the house you avoid tax charges (thanks to the lovely local EA for the advice)
• While it seems a good idea - and it is - think carefully about timings. Your house will have fewer interested buyers if the new development's not been built as they'll worry/wonder about noise/mess and how it looks once it's finished.
  It might be better, therefore, to sell yours once they're built and being sold....or after that time, depending what you had in mind.
  The danger of selling early, though, is that they'll sit on it and not start the work, leaving you in limbo with a PP next door that'll make some buyers nervous.
• Ask the developer to buy both land and your house at market price.
  Otherwise, if you sell land first, development of more houses nearby will reduce your house value.
• Would the new houses overlook your house and remaining garden? would there be an increase in noise and traffic?
  Without knowing quite how big your garden is or how many houses are being proposed it's hard to say the impact it would have on the value of your property.
  How long do you have until retirement, and in the meantime would you be happy living right next to a building site?
• Thanks to all so far for the quick responses! We won't be ready to move house for a year or two yet, but we believe that it might be important to get a deal on the land ahead of the general election - in case the new govt slams a tax on it! Just a couple of further points - obviously we would like to get the best deal we can, but without going to the lengths of taking on the workload of doing all the planning, negotiating, contracting etc. ourselves, as we have other family concerns at the moment. Would a local Chartered Surveyor be the way to go? or do we just simply play the property developers off against each other to maximise their offers?
• Get a local architect to draw up some basic outline plans and get them approved.
• I'm wondering on what you are basing your comment of "If we don't sell part of our garden, whoever bought it probably will". You have no way of knowing that as far as I can see.
  A garden that is bigger than people want is no problem. A garden that is smaller than people want means them rejecting your house, when they might not have otherwise done so.
  If I found that a house I was genuinely interested in that had a reasonable length back garden (ie 80' - 100') or a long back garden (150' plus) had sold off part of it and it was now only a little shortie back garden then a lot of my interest in the house would drop overnight personally.
  How big a back garden would you have if you sold part of it?
  Add in the fact that, quite apart from garden size, having a development at the bottom of the garden would also put some buyers off. I know my house doesn't have a nearly wide enough back garden for my tastes, but I wouldn't have compromised and bought it if I hadn't been taking into account that beyond my own back garden are other peoples back gardens. With that, I don't have to feel "claustrophobically enclosed" at the back and it was possible for me to buy this house.
• I sold my house and then the land, but my land sale was not for a development.
  The house price wasn't affected by me doing this, but as I was up-front about the shorter garden, several people 'lost interest' despite being keen before I told them.
  The garden was 70' long and wide, and still much larger than those behind most other houses nearby, but it seems some folks may be upset by 'losing' something they never had in the first place!
  Not everyone wants a large garden either. When I failed to sell the house to a desperately tight deadline a few years before, several potential buyers said it was just too large for them to maintain.
  It was then that I decided to divide it.
• Round my way anything with a big enough garden gets snapped up in minutes for at least asking price, then a few months later the house is flattened and as many semis as can fitted are built, each with a postage stamp for a garden.
  It really irks me, because average people can't afford decent-sized gardens anymore. Good job the kids are all overweight tv addicts who don't need gardens anyway.
• I will admit to not understanding why people would find it a problem apparently to having a bigger garden than they personally want. Surely if that were the case, then just use the section of garden you actually want and just leave the rest to "go wild" and help provide a habitat for birds/insects/etc.
  Or, if you dont fancy that thought, then a one-off visit by a gardening firm to get shot of all trees/shrubs that arent required and put down heavy duty garden "sheeting" to kill off everything else naturally and maybe some attractive-looking gravel/woodchip/etc on top and bingo...job done. But once land has been sold then its gone forever...and no-one ever has the option of using the rest of that garden, ie because it belongs to someone else.
  Or a gardenshare arrangement with someone nearby that is longing for a garden to grow food in, but cant afford to buy themselves one/the list for allotments locally is too long/etc.
• We looked at a house that had sold off 2/3rds of the garden to a developer, along with their neighbours. We went in to the back garden and the sense of oppression and feeling of being overlooked by the 12 new houses was overwhelming.
  5 years later and it still hadn't sold.
  If you want to sell to a developer, either get them to buy your house too, or make sure you get a say in the layout of the new houses, or you may find your retirement plans go awry, like the couple selling near us did.