Self-build land in London - how much is it worth?

[Troy Steadman]

I've got a problem with a defective title in a narrow strip of garden.

Advice seems to be that to avoid compromising our forthcoming house sale we should split the house away from its garden. We can do that readily leaving a 39m x 14m plot for a bungalow and a 15m x 4.5m plot with an existing garage, parking space and road access.

Here's the photos, aerial photos etc:

two plots are connected notionally by a 1-1.5m narrow path (that should not present a practical problem because we have unresticted use of the defective bit).

So the questions are:

1) Is it possible to get permission for a house with such narrow access to the road?

2) If so approx how much is this plot worth? Around 1 mile to Surbiton Station?

Any help and advice appreciated:

[Tumbleweed]

IIRC you may have a problem with CGT if you split it that way.

[Troy Steadman]

Ta for that hint, the HMRC site was down this morning. Presumably that is nothing to do with the narrow "neck" of land between the two bits of land?

ISTR that the optimum method of developing was:

1) Buy a house in many acres in Esher and live in it (ie PPR). 2) Build a house with a very large garden in the garden and move into it. 3) Sell the old house and use the proceeds to build a new house in the new garden.

...and so on until the Revenue latch on. Thanks for your input Tumbleweed.

[Troy Steadman]

Oops...*not* many acres, only works for smallish plots?

[Owain]

The minute you separate the second plot off from the garden of the first, either the first or the second will cease to be your 'sole or main residence' so may attract CGT.

Owain

[Ronald Raygun]

Not quite true, I gather. There's something about the grounds being commensurate with enjoyment of the house, isn't there? Hence a huge mansion set in 10 acres of landscaped parkland could well count all of it as its "garden", whilst a bijou cottage could not.

[Richard Faulkner]

But if you sell the land 1st, it is part of your PPR and not subject to CGT, (up to about a quarter acre IIRC).

[Doug Ramage]

The "permitted area" is currently 1/2 hectare, which is ~ 1.25 acres.

[me]

In message , Doug Ramage writes

And the government is looking for up to about 40 units per hectare, so you should be able to do it 20 times!