How can you tell if your garden could take a new home?
A long garden could take a new home when three things line up: enough depth to keep a new home well away from existing back windows, a way in that is wide and safe enough, and a setting where a home behind the street wouldn’t look out of place. Length on its own never decides it.
Depth matters because of privacy. Many councils use around 21 metres between facing back windows and around 12 to 15 metres between a back window and a blank side wall, though your council’s own guide decides. Both homes also need a reasonable garden of their own once the land is divided.
Before you get in touch, a few quick checks give you a rough sense of your garden’s chances:
- Is there a gap beside your house, a drive or a garage that could become a way in?
- Does the garden back onto a lane, track or road that might give access from behind?
- Have any neighbours already built behind their houses, or tried to?
- Are there large trees, a stream, a steep slope or a public sewer in the garden?
- Do your deeds mention covenants about building or the number of homes?
Would you rather sell the land or keep it?
That is the first real decision, and there’s no wrong answer. Some owners want money from land they hardly use and no further involvement. Others want a home at the bottom of the garden for family, or to let or sell themselves. We offer both kinds of route.
If you’d rather sell or partner, you keep your house and we buy or work with you on the plot behind it. If you’d rather keep the land, we design it, get planning for it and build the new home for you. The options look like this:
- Sell outright: we buy the plot directly, with or without planning, subject to survey, title and contract
- Sell subject to planning: a conditional contract where we normally fund the application, and you keep your land if planning is refused
- Option agreement or planning promotion: we work on planning first, with your reasonable legal fees covered up to a cap set in heads of terms
- Joint venture: you put in the land and, in the usual structure, we fund and manage the work, with you sharing in the outcome on terms set out in writing
- Combine with neighbours: several gardens put together, sharing one access
- Design and build: you keep the land and we design, get planning for and build a new home on it
What happens to your own house and garden?
You keep your house, and it keeps a garden, just a shorter one. If the new home is reached by a drive beside your house, cars will pass along that side, so the design needs to protect your windows and privacy as much as your neighbours’.
Selling part of a garden is done by a transfer of part at HM Land Registry, and the plot gets its own title. If your house is mortgaged, your lender must agree to release the plot from its charge before the sale completes. Your solicitor handles both.
Tax is worth thinking about early. Private Residence Relief can cover part of a garden sold while you still own and live in the house, generally within a permitted area of up to half a hectare including the house, but selling the garden after the house, or developing and selling yourself, can change the position. HMRC also cautions that land fenced or divided off from the garden for development may not qualify, and the land should still be in use as garden when it’s sold. Take advice from a tax adviser before you commit.
What does it cost to find out what’s possible?
Nothing. Our garden plot appraisal is free and carries no obligation. It starts with a desktop check of maps, your title plan and the planning history nearby, then a conversation about what you want. If the plot looks viable, we arrange a site visit.
Costs after that depend on the route. On a sale subject to planning we normally fund the application, and any cost recovery is agreed in heads of terms before you sign. On planning promotion there is nothing to pay upfront. On a design and build, you receive a written quote after design and survey.
Why talk to us, and what won’t we promise?
We’re a new brand within the S&K Group, set up to help owners of long gardens decide what to do with them. Because we offer both selling and building routes, we can tell you which one fits your situation rather than steering you to the only one we have.
We won’t promise planning permission, a price or a timescale before we’ve seen your plot. Planning decisions are always the council’s, and land value depends on location, size, access and planning. What we will do is give you a straight answer, including telling you plainly if your garden isn’t likely to work.
Common questions
How long does my garden need to be to build a house at the end?
There’s no fixed length, because it depends on the layout, the way in and your council’s guidance. Many councils use around 21 metres between facing back windows, and both homes need a reasonable garden of their own, so short gardens rarely work. Width matters too, for the access. A free appraisal looks at your actual garden rather than a rule of thumb.
Do I need planning permission to build a house in my garden?
Yes. A new separate home always needs planning permission, usually through a full or outline application. It isn’t permitted development. An annexe used as part of your main house is treated differently from a separate home, but usually still needs permission. The council decides every application.
Can I sell the bottom of my garden and stay in my house?
Yes. You keep your house and sell only the plot, with or without planning, through a transfer of part. The plot gets its own title. If your house is mortgaged, your lender has to agree to release the plot. Take tax advice before you sell, because the timing of the sale can affect your position.
What if I don’t have a drive or gap beside my house?
It may still be possible. The land might be reachable from a lane at the back, through a neighbour’s garden by agreement, or by combining gardens with neighbours so one shared access serves several plots. Access is often the deciding factor, so we look at it first during the appraisal.
Will my neighbours be able to stop it?
Neighbours are consulted on any planning application and can comment, but they don’t have a veto unless the access crosses their land. The council weighs their comments on privacy, noise and daylight. A design that deals with those points from the start usually draws fewer objections.