How much to offer farmer for part of field to extend garden?

[witless1]

Hi,

I'm considering asking a neighbouring farmer if he'd consider selling a corner of his field to give us a bigger garden. We're looking at about one fifth of an acre.

The particular bit we'd like to buy is not particularly suitable for a site for a new house, or part of a site. However, we are quite close to the outskirts of a regional city so we'd likely have to pay well above agricultural prices, but I hope less than development prices. The general area is popular for sites for one-off housing.

Anyone have a rule of thumb for this kind of thing, or good/bad experience to share?

Thanks...

 

[Ann1]

So you are looking at about two fifths of an average building site. Research todays prices for these sites locally and calculate the price from there. I would ask if he is willing to sell first. I would not offer a price rather let him suggest one....he may be willing to sell for a lot less than you are willing to pay. Or he may be only willing to sell land in half acre blocks.

 

[fraggle]

As a guide, I bought 1/10th of an acre, unsuitable for building on, in a village near Dublin for €14k a good few years back. In my mind agricultural land was 5k/acre and .5acre dev land was about 200k (cost of a site!)

I could hardly offer 1/10 of 5000... so in my mind 1/10th of a site was 20k and I picked a number less than that for a quick deal.