Join a syndicate to buy 10 acres in Surrey?

[Gasmatt]

Hello everyone
1st day as a member, hoping to drum up a syndicate to buy 10 acres or so near Guildford, Surrey.
Perfect as a hobby wood! Asking price is £90K, down from £100K. Good access, but still secluded.
Mixed deciduous. Small dewpond in the middle, on a slight north-facing slope. Borders bridlepath on crest & overlooks huge pasture to South.
Nicest I've visited to date. Have a couple of other friends who are interested, but no-one keen to spend more than £20K. Ideally, 6 members (~£15K ea) would press all our buttons.
Here's hoping...
Matt

[SimonFisher]

Six members, some of whom don't yet know each other all agreeing how to manage 10 acres. Good luck!

What are the particulars for the site?

[ncrawshaw]

I've got 13 acres and can't even agree with myself what to do sometimes!!

[Gasmatt]

I'm hoping that common sense & a trip to a tame solicitor (my sister) to draw up some binding rules will prevent it degenerating into a bunfight. We're more into the wild food/camping/back to nature bit, rather than cash & timber extraction.
I doubt the three of us that are in will fight much- life's too short & we've known each other too long (& the kids will get bored & break it up).
Here's the link for potential syndicatees: http://www.uklanddirectory.org.uk/land- ... p?id=17173

[Gasmatt]

Thanks- & I have most of my extremities either crossed or clenched.

[Stephen1]

Hi Gasmatt

I think this might prove difficult! The very fact that you've know two of the others for so long and are obviously very good friends - or certainly have a bond of trust - might be an issue. It would be brave person indeed who would enter into such a group - how would I expect voting, or whatever system you decided on to make decisions to work- when there was already a close knit group within the process backing each other up. Now that might not be the case - but it's how people thinking of joining you might perceive it. So I'd be careful how you mention that aspect if I were you.

The second problem you have is that unless you split the freehold you devalue the wood by having it in multiple ownership. A wood worth £100k bought by 10 people for £10k each does not leave everyone with an assett worth 1/10 of £100k. If anyone wanted to sell their share of the freehold they would be unlikely to get £10k as the potential problems of mulitiple ownership would put many off - a 1/10 share is just not particularly desirable. However if you split the freehold this is vanishingly difficult as in any wood there will be particular spots that have the greatest appeal - how do you divide it up - it is not so simple as to just make holdings of equal size.

I wish you luck but surely you'd be better just sticking with the group of friends you have. Raise the money to buy this wood then choose the bit the group of you want and put the remaining 6-7 acres back on the market the following week. You'll get relatively more per acre as it's a smaller block - so cheaper in total an therefore within the reach of more folk so more competition for it - clearly more complicated than that but that's the jist!

Good luck

[Gasmatt]

Hmmm. v good advice- the "them n us" bit had occurred to me, the drop in value of the shares hadn't. Time for a conflab...

[SimonFisher]

Raise the money to buy this wood then choose the bit the group of you want and put the remaining 6-7 acres back on the market the following week.

Having checked first that there's nothing to prevent you sub-dividing the freehold after you've bought it. Many plots available these days that are parts of larger woods that have been sub-divided have restrictive covenants that deny you the right to further sub-divide.

[Stephen1]

Raise the money to buy this wood then choose the bit the group of you want and put the remaining 6-7 acres back on the market the following week.

Having checked first that there's nothing to prevent you sub-dividing the freehold after you've bought it. Many plots available these days that are parts of larger woods that have been sub-divided have restrictive covenants that deny you the right to further sub-divide.

It's actually quite unusual for such a covenant to be in place. It's part of the business model of 'woodlands for sale', which was subsequently copied by 'woods4sale'. These sort of covenants are not as simple as they seem, but here isn't the place to go into that!! Outside of these two companies they are very rare!