Planning promotion for your garden plot, with nothing to pay upfront

Who this suits

• Owners of long or wide gardens who want the plot sold with planning, not before
• Neighbours putting two or more back gardens together into one larger site
• Owners who want the plot tested on the open market rather than priced today
• People who can’t or won’t fund surveys, drawings and planning fees themselves
• Owners prepared to wait for planning and a sale rather than sell the land as it stands

What is planning promotion for a garden plot?

Planning promotion is an agreement where we take on the cost and work of getting planning permission for land you own, and the land is then sold with that permission. For a garden plot, that means the land behind or beside your house. You keep the house, and the plot becomes a separate building plot with its own title when it sells.

The difference from a straight sale is timing and who carries the planning risk. You don’t sell first and hope; the plot is sold once permission exists, so the price reflects the permission. Our planning costs and our fee are paid out of the sale proceeds, which means our return depends on the plot selling well, just as yours does.

It also differs from an option agreement. Under an option, we hold the right to buy at a price or formula fixed now. Under promotion, the price is found later by marketing the plot with permission, and you receive what the market pays less the costs and fee written into the agreement.

What does planning promotion cost you, and when is anything paid?

Nothing is paid upfront. We fund the surveys, drawings, planning application fee and consultant reports. Those planning costs are recovered from the sale proceeds only if a sale with planning happens, and the amount we can recover, or a cap on it, is set out in the heads of terms before you sign anything.

We also cover your reasonable legal fees for the promotion agreement, up to a cap agreed in the heads of terms, so you can take independent advice from day one. Promotion fees are commonly set as a share of the net sale proceeds, which ties the promoter’s return to the price the plot achieves. The exact basis of ours is agreed with you in writing.

Is planning promotion right for a single garden, or only for bigger sites?

To be straight with you, promotion is more usual for bigger sites. Land promoters mostly work on fields and edge-of-settlement land where several homes are planned, because the fixed costs of planning, legal work and marketing are spread across a larger sale. On a single garden plot for one new home, those same costs take a bigger slice of a smaller sale.

That doesn’t rule it out. Promotion can suit a single garden where the plot is generous, the access is straightforward, and you want the plot tested on the open market rather than sold at a figure fixed today. It suits combined gardens better: when two or more neighbours put their land together, the scheme is larger, the access is often better, and promotion starts to work the way it does on bigger sites.

If yours is a single, modest garden, we may suggest an alternative. Selling subject to planning means we agree the price now and normally fund the application. An option agreement gives us the right to buy once permission is granted. A straight sale of your garden gives you a price now, subject to survey, title and contract. Telling you which route fits is part of the free appraisal.

How is the plot marketed and sold once planning is granted?

Once permission is granted, the plot is marketed in the way the agreement describes. That usually means an agreed agent offering it to developers, small builders and self-builders, with a set marketing period and a clear date for offers. The sales pack includes the permission, the approved drawings, the title and the survey reports, so buyers can bid on facts rather than guesses.

You see every offer and approve the buyer. The agreement normally lets us make an offer too, at a price tested against the open market, for example by an independent valuer, so any sale to us has to stand up against what the market would pay. When a buyer is agreed, the plot is transferred out of your title as a transfer of part, and the new plot gets its own title at HM Land Registry.

If your house is mortgaged, your lender has to agree to release the plot from its charge before completion. We raise this at the start rather than the end, so it doesn’t hold up a sale that’s otherwise ready.

How is the sale price protected?

Your main protection is a minimum price. It’s agreed with you in the heads of terms, and the plot can’t be sold below it without your written consent. If offers come in under the minimum, you can say no, and the agreement sets out what happens next: remarketing, a revised scheme, or the agreement ending.

Other protections a promotion agreement should contain:

• A duty on us to market the plot properly, for an agreed period, through an agreed agent
• Your approval of the buyer and the main terms of sale
• Independent valuation if we, or anyone connected with us, want to buy the plot
• A cap on the planning costs we can recover from the proceeds
• Open-book figures, so you can see every deduction before the balance is paid
• A fixed term, after which the agreement ends if no sale has happened

What happens if planning is refused?

If the council refuses permission, you keep your land and you don’t repay any of our planning costs, because they’re only recovered from a sale with planning. The decision is always the council’s, and nobody can promise a particular outcome on a garden plot.

Within the term, we may amend the scheme and apply again, or appeal. For a new home, an appeal usually has to be lodged within six months of the date on the decision letter, and an independent inspector normally decides it. If there’s no realistic route to permission, the agreement ends and the entry protecting it should come off your title.

One honest point: a refusal stays on the council’s record. It doesn’t stop a future application, but any later scheme will have to answer the reasons given. That’s why we spend time on access, separation distances and design before anything is submitted, rather than learning those lessons from a refusal.

What should you check before signing a promotion agreement?

Your solicitor will go through the whole document, but these are the points worth reading yourself, because they decide how the deal feels in practice:

• How long the term runs, and whether either side can extend it
• Exactly how our fee is calculated and when it’s paid
• The cap on planning costs recoverable from the sale
• The minimum price, and how it can be reviewed
• Whether you can sell or remortgage your house during the term
• What happens to the permission if the agreement ends without a sale
• Which part of the garden is included, and where the new boundary runs
• Any restrictive covenants on your title and how they’ll be dealt with

How does promotion compare with the other ways to sell a garden plot?

Each route puts the planning risk and the price risk in a different place. Promotion sits between a quick sale and doing it all yourself, and it only makes sense if the extra waiting is likely to be rewarded:

• Sell your garden: a price now, subject to survey, title and contract, with the least waiting
• Sell subject to planning: price or formula agreed now, we normally fund planning, completion only if permission is granted
• Option agreement: we hold the exclusive right to buy within an agreed period once planning is secured
• Planning promotion: the price is found by marketing the plot with permission; costs and our fee come from the proceeds
• Joint venture: you put in the land and share in the finished homes or their sale

Step by step

1. Free plot appraisal

   We check your title plan, access, the surrounding gardens and the policies in the council’s Local Plan as a desktop exercise, then talk it through with you. If it looks viable, we visit. No cost and no obligation.

2. Heads of terms

   We set out the deal in writing: the term, how our fee works, the cap on planning costs we can recover, the minimum price, the marketing approach and the cap on your reasonable legal fees that we cover.

3. Agreement signed

   Your solicitor and ours turn the heads of terms into a promotion agreement. It’s usually protected by an entry on your title, and if your house is mortgaged, your lender is asked to consent early.

4. We apply for planning

   We commission the surveys and drawings, take pre-application advice where it helps, submit the application and deal with the council’s questions. You pay nothing at this stage, and the decision is the council’s.

5. Marketing and sale

   With permission granted, the plot is marketed as the agreement sets out. You see the offers and approve the buyer, and the plot can’t be sold below the minimum price without your written consent.

6. Completion and payout

   On completion, sale costs, our capped planning costs and our fee come out of the proceeds in the order the agreement sets. The balance is paid to you through your solicitor.

Things to weigh up

• Promotion takes longer than a straight sale: planning, then marketing, then completion, and each stage can run on.
• On a single small plot, fixed costs and our fee take a bigger share of the sale price than on a larger site.
• The plot’s price isn’t known until it’s marketed with permission; it depends on location, size, access and the permission itself.
• Planning may be refused. You keep your land and owe nothing for planning, but the months spent can’t be given back.
• You can’t sell the plot to anyone else while the agreement runs, so the term length matters.
• You’ll live next to whatever is built, so the layout, windows and new boundary affect your house too.

Read next

• Option agreement vs subject to planning vs outright sale
• Combining gardens with neighbours: how land assembly works