Approaching land owners about potential sites

RedXIV

Hi all,

anyone have any experience around approaching landowners about potentially purchasing a plot of land? I'm hoping to buy close to my family home (within 1km) and there is a lot of argicultural land around it. A number of the houses around my family home were built on sites parcelled off on agricultural land but the sites were made available and then approached by the interested parties whereas I'm hoping to talk to the land owner who has no sites (that I know of) up for sale.

I have name and address of the land owner but very little else, and just wondering if this ever works at all or am I chasing a losing dream?

Cheers,
Red

the_syco

Would advise you checking with your county's planning office first, to ensure that you could get planning at the site, before trying to buy the site.

divillybit

I know of a relative of mine who has been refused planning permission for a house on his parents land because he already has a house, albeit a house about 100 miles away. Long story short, he will have to sell his house before planning permission will be granted

Bullocks

If you don't ask you will never know . I don't think there is any harm in asking , even if a farmer hadn't planned to sell it could spark an idea , or they could mention it to other neighbouring landowners that might like the chance to sell a site .

JustAThought

Bullocks wrote: »

If you don't ask you will never know . I don't think there is any harm in asking , even if a farmer hadn't planned to sell it could spark an idea , or they could mention it to other neighbouring landowners that might like the chance to sell a site .

I’d definately not be telling others who might also like the same idea & have it in mind for their own children/grandchildren etc!! I’d say why not - but I’d do my personal resaearch first and maybe get someone close to you who might know them to scope it out or put the thought in their head before you bash in. I think its a v good idea but people are well particular and cagey about land - and canny too on knowing what can and can’t be built on, or what angle of the road you’d need to be allowed put a driveway onto it etc.

I’d also have an idea of what height & type of house you’d be planning to build -cos I’d ask if it were to be near/beside/in front of mine!! And see if you could get them to agree to write a letter of support for you for the planning and and/or agree not to object to your planning permission as a condition of sale.

A particularly vile person I used know was gifted land in another county from a distant relation to enable them move ‘home’ to a rural laneway - they build their McMansion and then successfully objected to each of the other 3 cousins houses being built on the adjacant land sites.Can you imagine Christmas in that family?

antoinolachtnai

I would suggest getting introduced to the local land agent. He/she will know who owns what and what’s what and may have helpful suggestions.

RedXIV

the_syco wrote: »

Would advise you checking with your county's planning office first, to ensure that you could get planning at the site, before trying to buy the site.

Unfortunately here I think I need to identify the land I'd be targeting to build on. I know I'd be satisfying the local needs criteria which is the most controversial one, but there is an element of doubt simply because it's currently agricultural land right now.

divillybit wrote: »

I know of a relative of mine who has been refused planning permission for a house on his parents land because he already has a house, albeit a house about 100 miles away. Long story short, he will have to sell his house before planning permission will be granted

This is not a problem at the moment Renting and have Help to Buy as a first time buyer ready to go!

Bullocks wrote: »

If you don't ask you will never know . I don't think there is any harm in asking , even if a farmer hadn't planned to sell it could spark an idea , or they could mention it to other neighbouring landowners that might like the chance to sell a site .

The famer has approx 100 acres all connected around the area my parents live so they make up about 33% of the available range I can use for local needs. But its a good point, there may be a random land holding somewhere I'm just not aware of!

JustAThought wrote: »

I’d definately not be telling others who might also like the same idea & have it in mind for their own children/grandchildren etc!! I’d say why not - but I’d do my personal resaearch first and maybe get someone close to you who might know them to scope it out or put the thought in their head before you bash in. I think its a v good idea but people are well particular and cagey about land - and canny too on knowing what can and can’t be built on, or what angle of the road you’d need to be allowed put a driveway onto it etc.

I’d also have an idea of what height & type of house you’d be planning to build -cos I’d ask if it were to be near/beside/in front of mine!! And see if you could get them to agree to write a letter of support for you for the planning and and/or agree not to object to your planning permission as a condition of sale.

Unfortunately the land owner isn't the one using the land from what I can see, I believe it's leased out. The address of the owner is 20km away from the land itself so I don't know them at all. I do have the irish mammy network on it though.

I already have house plans done up for another site close by that fell through at the last minute, so I can provide house plans as an idea of what we're looking to build but wasn't sure if this was too presumptuous to include.

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

I would suggest getting introduced to the local land agent. He/she will know who owns what and what’s what and may have helpful suggestions.

Been trying this angle but local estate agents, planners and architects are all bloody woeful at communicating at the moment. Heart-breakingly so!?

Pelagia

Parents were approached a couple of times down through the years and never minded being asked. They sold a site to a cousin years ago but none since. Bought in recent years myself and I’ve a scrap of land out my back. The amount of times people have hinted at me selling it as a site. I could have sold it ten times by now. They’re horrified when I mention my plans for goats, hens, etc.) Word of mouth might give you an idea of where recent homebuilders acquired their sites. As an ex long time house hunter myself, I’ve noticed that if a landowner sells one site, he/she is more likely to sell again. Another option could be to look at an old building on a nice site. Two near neighbours have built peaches of houses on old sites (one had been born in the original house while the other was a “blow in” as they say around here). I wish you all the best with your house plans. It took me years & a whole lot of heartache to get here but as I sit listening to the birdsong, it’s been worth it. Good luck!

Standard Toaster

How did you fair out in the end @RedXIV?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116790468#Comment_116790468

Seriously, what's a 'local land agent'? Do you mean the local estate agent, or is there a person in each local authority who knows who owns what in the county?

antoinolachtnai

Yup, the local guy who buys and sells property.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480687#Comment_120480687

But there’s no such thing. Auctioneers sell houses and land for other people, they don’t buy it.

walterking

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480789#Comment_120480789

Auctioneers hold auctions of land and property. Many estate agents are not auctioneers. Those who do conduct auctions will have an "auctioneer" who will give you the pros and cons of selling or buying at auction

Similarly Land agents do exist. In many cases it's a specific person within an estate agent business and if you were looking for a site, this is the person you deal with.

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120480468#Comment_120480468

Fairly different scenario from when I made this post originally :D

I did get in touch with the owner via our architect and found out that a developer bought most of the land around the same time I was looking at options. The developers were well known to be always willing to do business but on their terms and the land we were offered was 1/2 an acre for 180k. This was out of our budget and too small for the house we wanted to build anyway.

We actually found another site after this that DID suit us but the increased cost of construction over Covid just destroyed any hope we had of building a house we'd be happy with. Around last summer we got to the point where we had to cut our losses and start looking at buying instead of building.

Currently sale agreed on 2 houses (but one is just waiting for a final nail in the coffin preventing our ability to buy it, and then we'll revert to the other one)

But ultimately it wasn't a bad thing to chase this, and the advice here did help in it's own way, we went to our architect for advice and he did the digging

Standard Toaster

Thanks for the follow up. Wait you're sale agreed on two properties?

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120485795#Comment_120485795

Went sale agreed on a house about 6 weeks ago, was told by the solicitor that we wouldn't get approval from the bank to loan us the funds about two weeks ago because of legal issues with the road leading to the property. After hearing that we went a looked at another house and put a deposit on that and asked for the booking deposit back on the first house.

When we did that the estate agent rang the solicitors and I was told there MAY be a chance to buy the house, but it's ultimately all up to the bank. So we're waiting to see what bank says on that one, that'll determine which estate agent I chase for my booking deposit back.

I did feel a little bit bad about playing two houses off each other, but I've literally been trying to get a home for 4 years, at this point, I'm a little more ruthless

Standard Toaster

Oh no, totally. Works both ways.

Best of luck, do keep us random digital strangers posted.