Which route is right for my garden?
The right route depends on what you want from the land and how much involvement you’d like. If you want money for the plot and as little involvement as possible, a sale, either now or subject to planning, is usually simplest. If you want to share in more of the value and are happy to wait, an option, promotion or joint venture may suit.
If you’d rather keep the land and end up with a new home, the design and build route is the one to look at. If you aren’t sure at first, that’s exactly what the free appraisal is for.
How long does the whole process take?
It varies a great deal, so we don’t promise timescales. A straightforward sale of a plot that already has planning can move at the pace of the solicitors and your mortgage lender. Routes that need planning usually take many months, because of surveys, design work, the council’s decision period and any amendments.
Design and build takes longer again, typically well over a year from first conversation to handover. What drives the timetable most is the plot itself: access, trees, drainage, title issues and how the council views garden development.
What do I need to have ready?
Very little to begin with. Your address and a rough idea of the garden’s size and how a vehicle could reach it is enough for us to start a desktop check. Photos help but aren’t essential.
Later on it helps to have your title documents, details of your mortgage lender and any past planning history for the property. Your solicitor will collect most of this, and we’ll tell you exactly what’s needed at each stage.
What if the council says no?
Planning is the council’s decision, and some garden schemes are refused. If you’ve agreed a sale subject to planning and permission is refused, the contract doesn’t complete and you keep your land.
After a refusal we’ll look at the council’s reasons with you and say honestly whether a revised application or an appeal is worth pursuing, or whether it’s time to stop. Whatever happens, nothing changes about your house.
Is anything different in Wales?
The steps are the same, but some of the rules differ. In Wales the council judges applications against Planning Policy Wales, Technical Advice Note 12 on design and its Local Development Plan. Every new home needs sprinklers, and most new developments need approval from the council’s SuDS Approval Body before building starts.
Buyers in Wales pay Land Transaction Tax rather than Stamp Duty Land Tax, and the biodiversity rules work differently. We work to the Welsh rules on every Welsh plot.
