How to Find a Building Plot

A constant refrain from those seeking a plot is that there are none out there or that those that are get snapped up by builders or developers before they even reach the market.

On the former point they are quite definitely wrong. On the latter point they are, in part, right. But the notion that self-builders stand no chance is incorrect. Estimates indicate that between 15-20,000 self-build projects take place each year — meaning that there are at least 15-20,000 fresh opportunities around every 12 months.

Many others, perhaps recognising that self-building does indeed go on, complain that they live in an area where plots are never available. Again this is not true. If all of the plots that the land finding agencies have on their books were converted to pins on a map, the whole of the UK would be covered. Even in the highly developed South-East of England, there are plots for sale on a regular basis. They may be highly priced but so they should be — for the properties to be built upon them have high values. Very few plots are sold at figures which make the project economi­cally non-viable. The message about plot finding comes down to those old chestnuts of diligence, vigilance, perseverance and luck — plus of course a knowledge of some of the tricks of the trade and an understanding of just what you are up against. Any General wishing to win a battle knows that in order to do so you have to put yourself into the mind of the enemy. It is also important that you choose your ground. If one method isn’t working, try another — in fact try them all.

Estate agents

Estate agents come in for a pretty bad press, sometimes deservedly so. But think about it carefully. Think about the fact that an estate agent isn’t just there for the short time frame when you’re trying to self-build. They’re there for the duration. It’s an ongoing business and all businesses rely on sowing the seeds for the future in the course of their normal trading activities. Small wonder then that, if a plot comes up, their first thought is for it to be sold to a builder or developer who will, in return, engage them for the sale of whatever gets built on the land.

Selling a plot to a self-builder is just a bit too long term for most. The consensus of opinion is that somebody going to the time and trouble to build their own home is going to build exactly what they want and then live in it happily ever after. It’s not true of course. Most self-builders do it again at some stage and some move and build homes more often than most people buy and sell their houses. Sometimes it’s driven by finance and the need to reduce or wipe out a mortgage. Some­times it’s simpler than that in that they either just get the building bug or want to improve upon what they’ve already achieved.

Estate agents do, of course, have a duty to their clients — the vendors of the land. Many are now realising that the self-builder can perhaps give that little bit more for the plot than the builder or developer. More important­ly, many vendors are also aware of this fact. The days of self-building existing in a parallel universe, undiscovered and misunderstood are long gone. Most estate agents will know of the land finding agencies and the market they serve and some clients are only too well aware of this too — to the point where they are beginning to cut out the agents altogether and advertise their land directly.

Just putting your name and requirements down with an agent is unlikely to produce very much. If at all possible arrange to visit them on a regular basis. Make yourself known to them. You need to ensure that when that plot comes up, your name is almost the first one they think of. If you can’t visit then ring on a regular basis. Get to know names and build up a relationship.

Getting around the agents

An estate agent selling a piece of land gets a relatively small fee for doing so. What interests them of course is the much higher fee for selling the resulting house — that and the thought that their advertising board will be on a prestigious site for months to come. Try representing yourself as a ‘Private House­builder’. Give the impression that you’re going to sell the house when it’s finished. Talk about values and the best way of selling. After all, as we’ve already identified above, the likeli­hood is that you will be selling and moving on again in any event. When you do find your plot, start talking immediately about your next plot. The truth is that you may well provide repeat business, so make sure that the agents understand that fact.

Visit the offices at the weekend. Some firms have weekend staff whose only job is to ‘mind the shop’. Tell them that you’re looking for land and that you’re on the land list. Check your details with them and ask them to check in the files to see if any land has come in since your last visit. You might see files or details of land that the principal staff have neglected to tell you about and, on the Monday morning, when proper business resumes, you might be able to get further information. In turn they might wonder how you heard of the land and they might well have something to say to their weekend staff.

Does any of this seem underhand? Well it shouldn’t. You want a plot. The vendor wants to sell the plot to the highest bidder and it’s the agent’s job to do just that. All you’ve done is assist them in that task.

Getting in before the agents

The maxim, which needs repeating, is that as self-builders rather than property speculators, you should not buy land that doesn’t have planning permission or at least the certainty of it. But that doesn’t mean that you have to wait for all of that to happen before you register your interest or come to an agree­ment with a landowner.

You don’t have to own land in order to make a planning application. All that is required is that you serve notice on the owners. But to go around making planning applications on land that you don’t own might be extremely costly unless you have made some prior agreement with the owners. You do need to tie up some sort of legal agreement, either in the form of an ‘exchange of contracts’, ‘subject to receipt of satisfac­tory planning consent’, or in the form of a legally binding option to purchase. Otherwise there would be nothing to stop a vendor simply saying, “Thank you very much for all of the work you’ve done in getting planning on my land, but I’m selling it to somebody else.”

Study the Ordinance Survey maps of your local or chosen area. Look out for obvious plots. Look out for streets where infill has already taken place but where certain properties have not taken advantage of this opportunity. Look out for signs of previous backland development, where properties have been built in the rear gardens of houses with either shared access or a new access down the side. Watch out for houses with long back gardens that front onto a side road or where one house has a road frontage that could lead to a number of back gardens forming a viable plot.

When you’ve identified possible sites, get out there and check them on site. Sometimes the maps might be out of date. Sometimes there are physical reasons why plots can’t be developed.

Next, visit the planning office and ascertain what chances there are of these ‘plots’ obtaining consent. Maybe they’ll be negative. If so perhaps it’s best to move onto another possibility. Maybe they’ll be non-committal, but maybe, and especially in the light of recent government directives to utilise land more intensively, they’ll accept the fact that this is a potential building plot. If so, ask them if they would prefer a ‘full’ application, rolling the outline and detailed stages into one. That can save time and money and, whilst not a certainty, probably means that the project stands a pretty good chance of success.

The hardest part of course is to convince the landowner that they should sell to you. They can only say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. They may welcome your approach, especially if you represent yourself to them as private individ­u­als looking to build your new home. They may well tell you to get lost — but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Getting in behind the agents

Whilst you’re in talking to the planners, ask to see the Planning Register. This is not a secret document. It is open for public inspection, as indeed are all of the files on applications.

Study this register and you will see that it is a list of all of the planning applications that are currently under consideration. Some of them will be for things like extensions. Ignore those. Some will be for ‘Approval of Reserved Matters’ pursuant to an original outline consent. Maybe they’re not worth that much attention as they probably indicate that who­ever owns the land has already decided what to do with it. But don’t discount them if they’re exactly what you’re looking for.

Pay the most attention to the ‘outline’ appli­ca­tions. Make a note of the applicant’s name and address, especially if it’s clear that they live next door.

You’ll also notice that there is often an appli­­cant’s agent. And guess what? That’ll proba­bly be one of those estate agents who’s already told you that they don’t have any land for sale and that they don’t know of any that’s coming up! So it’s no good writing to them. They’ve already decided that they don’t want to deal with you on this project. Write instead to the owners. Tell them that you’re hoping to build your own home and that if they ever want to talk to you about you buying their land, you’d be delighted to hear from them. Maybe you’ll hear nothing. Maybe you never will. But equally, you might one day get a call from them.

When people get planning for part of their garden they’re delighted at the cash windfall that this usually represents. The agent will, in all probability to gain the business in the first place, have told them top dollar price. Then when they’ve had time to think about things they start to worry. What will it be like? What effect will it have on their enjoyment of their home? What effect will it have on the value?

If the agent has ‘sold’ the land to local developers, what sort of house will they be building? Will they be building the biggest house they can and to hell with the conse­quences or the effect on the existing house? Is the developer paying the right price? Many a time the offer that comes in – as a result of the cosy relationship between agent and builder – is a lot less than the figure that was first quoted. Not only that but the sale can drag on with the builders not wanting to commit financially until they have either sold the previ­ous house they’ve built or actually got plan­ning permission for what they want to build.

It’s then that the owner may well go to the file, turn up your letter and contact you. You are offering to not only buy the land but to be their neighbour. You can sit down and talk to them as potential neighbours about all of their fears and empathise with the mutual need to preserve values and enjoyment — and most importantly you can offer them the price they were hoping for.

Replacement dwellings

A large proportion of self-build projects are not ‘greenfield’ plots and, instead, are one for one replacements. Large numbers of houses built since the war, even as late as the 1970s, have run their course. They are structurally unsound, they are incapable of being brought up to modern requirements for thermal insulation and energy efficiency and they do not provide the sort of accommodation that is now required.

Estate agents don’t always recognise this fact. Sometimes they take a property at its face value and they might try for ages to sell a substandard bungalow or house, with a string of disappointed mortgage applications, little realising that this should more properly be a plot.

When you’re putting your name down for plots, consider also asking for details of prop­erties in need of refurbishment. Consider whether you might want to separate the two issues and register this other interest under a different name or with a different address.

Replacement dwellings have huge advan­tages over plots. Whilst there may be demo­lition costs, in most cases these are insignif­icant or unlikely to detract from the value of the plot. On the other hand many of the infra­structure costs associated with a greenfield plot are taken care of. Almost certainly, all or most of the services are already in. The sewers might well be connected, the driveway and entrance may already have been formed and the garden and fencing are likely to be capable of re-use.

The Landfinding Agencies

The starting point for most people looking for land or development opportunities are the land finding agencies. When you study the plot registers (e.g. www.plotfinder.net), make a note of the agents who are involved. As has been said above, not all estate agents are prepared to deal directly with the public but those who repeatedly advertise with the land finding agencies are obviously willing to do so. They are the ones to concentrate on. If you telephone them and you find out that the plot you are enquiring about has been sold, stay on the line. Ask for details of other plots of a similar nature. Ask if they know of other plots that will shortly be coming to market. Keep in touch with them and try to short circuit hearing about plots so you have the head start on everybody else looking in the area.

Local newspapers

The number of times a self-build plot is found in a local newspaper is legion. Study these papers carefully. Get the papers from the surrounding areas, as there is often quite a large overlap. Consider whether you might actually take out an advertisement yourself. Not all plots out there are current. Sometimes vendors hold onto them and they might be prompted to do something when they see your advertisement. There may be some time wasters. Some of the plots may be non-viable economically or physically and that might be the reason they didn’t sell in the past. But just occasionally the plot of your dreams is out there waiting to connect with you.

Other self-builders

If you see a mobile home on a site, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s a self-builder. Self-builders love talking to other self-builders or would be self-builders. They are a mine of information. They will tell you about the best tradesmen and the ones who let them down and who you should avoid. They will tell you the best architects or designers, the ones who were helpful, drew what they wanted and not what they thought they should have and who designed within their budget. They will tell you where the best material bargains are and which merchants were the most helpful and gave the best discounts. They will also tell you of land. Murphy’s Law says that once you don’t want something, it exists in abundance. They may well have heard of other plots and they will willingly tell you about them.

Further reading:

• Read about other self-builders' plot hunting experiences
• The Essential Plothunter's Checklist
• The Story of an Auction Plot