Free and confidential
How Much Is My Land Worth With Planning Permission?
Tell us a little about your land for a free desktop review. We reply within 2 working days, and there is no cost or obligation.
Request Your Free Land Review
The rough capacity figure updates as you type. It is a starting point, not a valuation.
- We reply within 2 working days, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
- The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
- If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.
Why We Do Not Give an Instant Price Online
Two fields of the same size in the same parish can be worth very different amounts. Access, flood risk, the council's housing position, heritage, landscape, drainage and ecology all change what a housebuilder can pay. Any website that gives you an instant price per acre is guessing, and a guess can be wrong by a long way in either direction.
We would rather look properly and give you a figure you can rely on, explained in plain English, and put it in writing.
Three Kinds of Land Value
1. Existing use value
What the land is worth as farmland, grazing or an old yard, with no prospect of planning.
2. Hope value
What a buyer paying today will add for the chance of planning one day, after allowing for the cost and risk.
3. Value with planning permission
What a housebuilder can pay once permission is granted, after building costs, affordable homes, contributions and profit.
Your price with us
Agreed in writing before any planning work starts, set above what your land is worth today, and paid on completion once permission is secured. We carry every cost and risk in between.
Existing Use Value
This is what the land is worth for what it is used for now, such as arable farming, grazing, equestrian use or storage, with no expectation of planning permission. It is set by comparable sales of similar land and, for farmland, by what the land can earn.
Hope Value
Some buyers will pay more than existing use value because they think planning permission might be granted one day. That premium is hope value. It can be modest or significant, depending on how realistic the prospect of planning is and how long it might take. Hope value is also why land on the edge of a village often sells for more than identical land further out.
Land Value With Planning Permission
Once land has permission for housing, it is worth what a housebuilder can pay for it. That is not simply the value of the homes that will be built, and it is often far less than people expect. The next section shows why.
How a Housebuilder Works Out What to Pay
Housebuilders use a residual valuation. They start with what the finished homes will sell for and take away every cost of delivering them. Only what is left can be paid for the land, and a great deal comes off first.
| What comes off first | What it covers | Who decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Building the homes | Construction, plus the new roads, sewers, drainage ponds, utilities and landscaping the site needs | Building costs and the site itself |
| Affordable housing | Homes sold to housing associations at well below market price, often a quarter to a half of all homes | The council's local plan |
| Section 106 and CIL | Contributions to schools, health, roads and open space | The council, site by site or by a set charge |
| Biodiversity Net Gain | New habitat on or off the site, looked after for 30 years | National law and the site's existing wildlife |
| Fees, finance and sales | Designers, lawyers, interest on borrowing, show homes and agents | The market |
| The housebuilder's profit | The return a builder needs to take on the risk of building and selling | Lenders and the builder's board |
Two things follow from this. First, whatever the council asks of a site comes straight out of the land value, which is why its policies matter so much to you as a landowner. Second, land value is the last figure in the sum, so it moves far more than house prices do. If the homes sell for a little less, the building costs, contributions and profit do not fall with them. The whole of the shortfall comes out of what is left for the land.
This is also why looking up the price of new homes nearby and multiplying it by the number of homes tells you very little about what land is worth. Most of that money never reaches the land.
Our guides to Section 106 and CIL and Biodiversity Net Gain explain two of the biggest deductions in detail.
Why Hope Value Is Usually Modest
Hope value is what a buyer will pay today, before any planning, for the chance of permission later. A buyer paying it has to allow for everything that stands between a field and a permission.
- The cost of planning. Surveys, design, applications and sometimes an appeal. On a larger site this can reach £300,000, spent before anyone knows the outcome.
- The chance of refusal. Many applications for homes on the edge of villages are refused, and some sites never get permission at all. A buyer has to price in the possibility of losing everything spent.
- The wait. Money tied up for several years earns nothing while planning is pursued, and a buyer allows for that.
- What the council will ask for. Until the scheme is designed and the council has responded, nobody knows exactly how much affordable housing, how many contributions or how much habitat will be required.
Put together, those allowances mean a buyer paying cash today can usually offer only a modest premium over existing use value. That is the choice at the heart of selling land with potential. Sell outright now and the planning risk is priced in against you: the buyer pays for the chance of planning, not for planning itself, and keeps the uplift if it comes.
With an option agreement at a fixed price, that risk moves to us. We pay for the planning, we carry the chance of refusal and we wait out the process, and you are paid a price agreed now, above what your land is worth today, once permission is secured. If planning fails, you still have your land and owe nothing.
Hope value also rises as the odds improve: a field allocated in a draft local plan will attract far more interest than one with no planning status at all. Our comparison of option, promotion and outright sale sets out the routes side by side.
What Raises and Lowers the Value of Your Land
| Tends to raise value | Tends to lower value |
|---|---|
| A location where new homes sell well | A weak local housing market |
| Simple road access with good visibility | Access that needs third-party land or major road works |
| Flat, well-drained land in flood zone 1 | Flood risk, poor drainage or steep slopes |
| Few ecological or heritage constraints | Protected habitats, mature hedgerows, heritage settings |
| A council that needs more housing land | A council with a new plan and strong delivery elsewhere |
| Clean title and vacant land | Title problems, tenancies or rights of way that need resolving |
None of these is decisive on its own. A site with a difficult access can still be valuable if everything else is strong, and a clean site can struggle if the council has no need for it.
Things You Can Do to Protect the Value
- Do not clear scrub, pull out hedges or plough old grassland to tidy the site up. For Biodiversity Net Gain, habitat damaged since 30 January 2020 is normally assessed as it was before the damage, so clearing it adds cost rather than saving it. Removing many countryside hedgerows also means notifying the council first.
- Find your title documents and plans, and check the boundaries on the plan match the ones on the ground.
- Note any tenancies, grazing licences, rights of way and wayleaves, and keep records of flooding, drainage or past planning applications.
- Avoid granting new long tenancies, easements or other rights over the land while you are thinking about its future, as they can be hard to undo.
How We Set the Price We Offer
- Look at the land and its constraints. Title, access, flood maps, designations, heritage, ecology and planning history, from the desk first and then on site.
- Sketch a sensible scheme. How many homes the land could realistically take, allowing for access, open space, drainage and the council's policies.
- Work out what the scheme can support. Using local sales values and the costs the council is likely to require, as described above.
- Allow for cost, risk and time. We pay for all of the planning work, which on a larger site can run to hundreds of thousands of pounds, and we carry the risk that it fails.
- Put it in writing. A short summary of the price and how the agreement works, so you and your family can talk it over properly.
The figure we put in writing is the figure you receive. Nothing is deducted from it later for planning costs, fees or anything else, and it does not move with the market while planning is pursued.
Because the price is fixed at the start, everyone in the family knows exactly where they stand, and your accountant can plan around a known figure. Our guide to tax when selling land for development explains why that matters.
Questions About Land Value
Is there a rule of thumb for price per acre with planning?
Not one that is safe to rely on. Values per acre vary several times over between regions, and within a single district, depending on the factors above.
Will the rough capacity figure be the number of homes built?
Rarely exactly. It assumes a typical share of the site can be built on at a typical density. The real figure depends on the layout, access, open space and the council's policies.
Does my land need to be valued by a surveyor first?
No. We carry out the review free of charge, and you do not need a formal valuation to have a first conversation with us.
Will you look at the land before putting a price in writing?
Yes. The desktop review comes first, and before we commit to a figure we will usually want to see the land, always at a time arranged with you. It helps us understand things maps do not show, such as how the ground drains and where an access could go.
Why a fixed price rather than a percentage of the value?
Because a percentage depends on things nobody knows when you sign: what the land eventually sells for, what counts as a cost and what is deducted. A fixed price removes all of that. You know the figure from the start.
Does a local plan allocation increase what my land is worth?
Usually, because it makes planning much more likely. It does not guarantee permission, and whatever the council asks of the site, such as affordable homes or land for a school, still comes out of the residual value.
How does tax affect what I keep?
Capital Gains Tax usually applies to the gain on sale, and selling can affect inheritance tax planning. Read our guide to tax when selling land for development and speak to your accountant early.