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Price of small plot of land

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Avatar | 13:25 Fri 30th Jul 2010 | Home & Garden
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My mothers got a ramshackle shed standing on plot of land 2m by 3m at the bottom corner of her garden. A builder developing behind the garden would like to buy the plot of land off her to give a bit more room at the front of one his properties.
Mother is happy enough to do this but doesnt want to be ripped off price wise.
Has anyone any idea what a reasonable price would be?
Its a fairly built up area generally, in a suburb of Bournemouth.
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I dont think anyone can put a figure on it. It is worth what someone is prepared to pay and what your Mother is happy to accept - negotiate and start high.
It seems rather strange that anyone would want to add such a small rectangular area to the edge of their existing boundary, unless it's to straighten out an irregularly shaped plot. Find out the reason, and price according to how desperate the builder is to aquire it. Ask around for the price of plots in the area, see how much that is per square metre - and that should help give you a guide.
Agree with the above. It's like asking how long is a piece of string. Your Mum would do well to get some professional advice. She could ask for a fair sum of money. The builder might well try to take advantage of her naivety in these matters.
It is extremely likely that he cannot get enough (vehicular) access on his existing plot and hence cannot get planning permission for what he wants to do. Thus without the additional piece of land, the existing land he owns is useless as a development plot.
Builders don't generally go wanting a small piece of land to but 'just to make the front garden a bit bigger for the new owner'. There will be a good reason for this.
If you don't know to exploit this situation, speak to a planning consultant. He/she will want a commission based on any profit, but it could easily be worth your while - this small piece of land could be worth £20-£30k.
Ask the builder to make an offer for the land and see what he comes up with. Your mother wouldn't be getting ripped off, no matter what price she accepts, if she's happy with what she gets. The agreement should also be that the purchaser pays all the legal fees etc.

You could also look on auction sites such as Allsop's, who sometimes sell land as well as property. These can be very small parcels of land not huge areas. You need to register, for free, on some of these sites but you'll get to see how much small areas of land went for. Might give you an idea of how much to expect.
I don't agree with you on this one 20/20.
Auction sites won't help because of the variables.
Looking at the price of land per square metre in Bournemouth won't help either (as suggested by someone else above).
It is true that the land is worth what someone is prepared to buy for it. Builders are not stupid - if you ask him to make an offer, he will probably say £500. But because it was just a shed to the owner now, and suddently it could be worth £500 that may seem like a good deal.
The market price is driven by what can be done in the planning context and you need someone who understands current property prices and planning potential to realise this for you.
To maximise the value from the potential windfall, the OP will need proper advice - which can be done on a commission-basis, so it is incentivised.
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Thanks for the answers guys.
Its not a vehicular access issue I know because all the houses are aleady built etc. Its just that one of the houses front doors now opens straight onto the side of what is mothers shed area. A concrete breeze block wall about 2 foot from their front door.
She has asked him to make an offer and all he said was "it wont be worth millions". Not very helpful.
I think she ought to press him for an offer again and if he still wont offer a price (which he doesnt want to do because im sure he thinks poor old mother will ask him for £50 or something and save him a fortune on what he really prepared to offer) to start the ball rolling at £5000 plus legal fees.
What do reckon?

Thanks.
Can you be sure though that it's not for parking space? That would increase the value of the house they're building.
OK, sounds a pretty unusual situation, and the builder must really feel the house is going to be hard to shift without the extra piece. If this land is accessible to the public highway as GF suggests, that would make more sense.
At the end of the day, you are in a situation where there is only one possible buyer - so there isn't a 'market' price as such. If the builder is hoping to sell the house for £250k then the piece is worth less than if he is hoping to sell it for £400k - it's purely a view (his view) of the blot on the landscape disadvantage of this land stuck right up against the door. He must have mis-estimated the impact it was going to have on the finished house.
The rule is start high - you can always come down. He is hardly likely to walk away in disgust if you get his 'perception' wrong first time. And if you don't sell, you've lost nothing though would retain the option to sell it later to an owner.
I would have thought £5k a good starting point (plus he picks up the legal fees). It's not ridiculously high and not stupidly low.
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Ok
cheers Buildersmate
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Builder offered her £2k in the end and mother told him to get stuffed basically!

Thanks for the answers though.

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