Would you get PP and subdivide your urban plot?

Hi all,

So the house hasn’t sold, and we got a new agent in.

He admired our reasonable sized plot and mentioned about selling onto developers. Sounds like a long process with them, with them submitting plans etc and can take a long while (years) but they give a retainer of 5 k...not really worth it if we are kept dangling with no guarantee of success......

So I thought about getting plans drawn up so we could market the house with PP (if we were to get it of course) for another house on our site or to divide the plot .... would have a shared drive.

Could anybody with experience please give any pointers...I’d be really grateful!

Cheers,

Mark

Developers (and opportunistic leeches) scan the estate agents windows for plots like this, so what makes you think that this route will gain a sale now?

It looks like the agent is thinking of his commission rather than your sale.

I couldn’t agree more woody. I had all the patter from the e agent about how we should let builders apply (keeping me in limbo). I just thought it would be better for us to try- and at least then it’s only a single plot which is less appealing to a builder.

I just was interested in the ford and againsts of getting PP on a plot and then dividing our original plot

Pros and cons. Pro: a plot with outline pp for, say, a 4 bed detached is a valuable asset- given that it's free at the moment. Con: selling a house with virtually no garden and a shared drive may reduce the value of the current house. Pro, it might attract the builder/developer. Con: it may alienate everyone! Pro, it won't cost much money or skill to find out.

Markwoody73 said:

I couldn’t agree more woody. I had all the patter from the e agent about how we should let builders apply (keeping me in limbo). I just thought it would be better for us to try- and at least then it’s only a single plot which is less appealing to a builder.

I just was interested in the ford and againsts of getting PP on a plot and then dividing our original plot

Click to expand...

It probably depends on the location.

There are a few roads near my local town East Grinstead where there are houses set in big plots. Quite a few have been knocked down and 2 or 3 built on the plot.

The trend these days is for low maintenance smallish gardens, but location is everthing and if you subdivide you need to ensure your house doesnt end up with a tiny odd shaped garden.

What you would do is work out how much of the land a new house will need (council policies) and where the access will be. Then get a plan and draw a line to divide the plot up.

Then apply for outline planning permission with design, access and layout as reserved matters, and send in your plan. Not much cost or effort. But you may need a designer's input to work out what's best to do in terms of the application, as obviously you don't want to apply for a two bed house if you can get six flats on there.

Then either sell each plot separately after you go through the land registry malarkey, or sell it as one with the permission. What's best will need your estate agents local knowledge.

Or apply to redevelop the whole site. Same principle as above, but with additional contempt from the neighbours.

Employ an architect to design a suitable scheme for your plot and advise on whether to submit an outline application in the first place or go straight for full planning permission. As others say ,your local estate agent will advise on selling ,but full planning permission will increase the value of the property significantly.