You can apply for planning on the land even if it doesn't belong to you, if you are refused then don't buy it. You'll lose the money for the application but you will not be stuck with land you can't do anything with.
Sadly I think if planning was a totally safe bet a delevoper would have already paid through the nose for it. Local developers normally have the ear of someone in planning. Small plots of agricultural land could be £10/acre but if there was a good chance of planning that could be £100K/acre.
From experience smal plots always make more per acre and it's extremely unlikely it will be sub £5k/acre, we bought our place 16 yearss a go and we weren't far from those numbers back then. Our land is divided by a road and we had the land on the other side of the road valued 10 years a go. It's 9 acres with road frontage on two side and the agent said it would make £100K
I guess your aim is buy it as agricultural with the hope it may be worth something as a building plot at a later date? If you can buy it normal agri rates then you have nothing to lose as it's unlikely to go down.
We have plot local that was just fields a few years back, someone paid £30K/acre but there are 49 houses there now.
We get letters all the time from speculators who say some of our land is suitable. I've alwasy said the day I sell out is the day we use the money to move further out.
I think more and more plots will become viable if they are next to a village.
£12-15K an acre round here
Is anyone into building/planning permission and know the ins and outs of it?
I'm looking at a plot which may be a possible investment but would like to speak to someone with a bit more knowledge. Cheers In advance