Doctor Drivel wrote:

What is the value of the house inc land? As the land is approx 2/3 of
the value of the house take this figure. Then measure the square
footage of the land. What ever the footage is of the strip to sold that
is the price you charge.


As usual Dribble is totally divorced from reality. The size of a garden
makes some difference to the value of a property but not a great deal
unless there is real potential for another building plot.

I had reason to look into the value of a ransom strip some 20 years ago
and the advice then was the owner could hold out for as much as half the
expected profit from the landlocked land.

I would suggest to David that the starting point (or even the sticking
point) for any negotiations would be half the increased value that the
neighbour can expect plus half the decrease in value that the loss of
part of the garden entails. And if the increase in one is anywhere near
the decrease in the other not to enter into any deal.

The Dribble logic above would imply that the seller was not actually
making a profit on the transaction while the reality of such a
transaction would be a very considerable profit unless the seller was
depriving himself of a complete building plot by disposing of a fraction
of it, in which case the seller would be onto a certain loser and a very
considerable loss in the long term.