Would you be more likely to buy a property if it had an arena?

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kit279

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I've got planning permission for a 20x40 arena and due to start building later on this month but slightly wondering whether it's going to be worth it. Might have to sell my house next year due to work and currently working away a fair bit. I would definitely use it if I had it but it would be mostly on weekends and during my leave and I currently manage pretty well with riding in the grass paddock. Build cost is £24K all in and not sure if it will be worth it to build it.

Would I recoup the costs if I have to sell? Would an arena make a property more saleable?
 
No.

I'd be more likely to buy a property if it had planning consent, but the actual presence of a 40x20 will put off non-horse buyers, so don't have it built unless you personally want it.
 
No, I don't have that sort of money sadly. Mind you, I'm not likely to be buying a garden shed any time soon :o

If I were in that sort of market, sure, I'd be more likely to buy a house with an arena.
 
You're asking the wrong audience. The people on this forum are more likely to be interested because most of us have horses or ride, but you would be limiting your market to equestrian buyers only.

cptrays is right - get the planning permission so that if someone who has horses comes along they know that they *can* build the arena, but don't actually build it because someone with no interest in horses may like your house but not be willing to pay extra for something they'll never use.
 
If I had the money and I was looking, then I would prefer a property with an arena. But then if there were 2 identical properties, one with and one without, I wouldn't fork out £24k extra for the one with the arena.
As others have said though, it could well put off non-horsey potential buyers.
 
No. I'd be more likely to buy it if I had some money ;)

In my experience, people who have horses are much less likely to have money than other sorts of people, so I would think you will attract fewer buyers by having it than not. But I may be completely wrong!
 
I'm looking at the moment but my priority is the land and location over everything else.
Good grazing and a rural area with good riding and an equestrian network wins over a lesser property with an arena.
A decent menage is the icing on the cake but not a deal beaker.
 
I would like the planning permission.

As a horse person it would then mean I could have a school built and I'd know what the construction was like and I could choose the surface.

If I was a non-horsey person then I'd think I'd be likely to get PO for any other leisure activity item, such as a tennis court or swimming pool (no idea if either if those need PP, but you get my drift).
 
I am trying to sell my house at the moment. I have an arena. Feedback I've had, is that non horsey peope are put off by the arena.

I have a new build farmhouse, american barn, 4 stables, fabulous hacking, near to beaches, lovely grazing, trailblazer centre about 10mins hack away, horsey area with lots of fun rides etc, etc but I'm struggling to sell. have reduced our price by 150k as well! still struggling to get viewers.

sorry, i've waffled, but yes, arena seems to put non horsey people off.
 
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Myhorsefred - just wondering why an arena would it people off your place. It's obviously set up for those with horses (stables and barn), so an arena is hardly here nor there really? It could be that the stables and barn are putting off non-horse people because they don't want to pay for items they won't use per se?

Good luck selling! Sounds lovely indeed, but I'm guessing well out of my price range :cool:
 
The house is reasonably big and there's quite a bit of land, 10 acres in total, plus 4 stables so it's fairly well set up for equestrian use, plus it's in Newmarket so quite a horsey place. I haven't yet fixed on selling - quite a lot of variables have to come into it TBH. Thanks for all the advice, very helpful.
 
kit279 said:
I've got planning permission for a 20x40 arena and due to start building later on this month but slightly wondering whether it's going to be worth it. Might have to sell my house next year due to work and currently working away a fair bit. I would definitely use it if I had it but it would be mostly on weekends and during my leave and I currently manage pretty well with riding in the grass paddock. Build cost is £24K all in and not sure if it will be worth it to build it.

Would I recoup the costs if I have to sell? Would an arena make a property more saleable?
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planning permission will lapse after a certain length of time if you do not start building but if you do start to build then it is on going . the local authority doesn't say you have to it built in a certain time span. if i was you i would start to build, not build much but you do not have to complete it. the planning will then remain in place, you wont have spent 24k so if you sell your house a horsey person can put in a school with not much hassle if a none horsey person buys then they will not have a large sand pit to sort out for the lawn. please check with your authority, this is why you will see house builders starting to build and then stopping as in the have put in some drainage
 
MrsMozart, I think the way the american barn is set up it could be used as a workshop etc, so people seem to quite like that. Had one person who sold a few caravans, so ideal storage for them, and its got a hook up for charging the battery of a caravan/horse box etc, so they thought it would be ideal for them.

But I've also had feedback that people would want to change arena back to a field. Its cut into a dip in the field, so beautifully wind proof to ride in, but would need a lot of filling to level it again.

For someone horsey though, it would be perfect. I suppose when you tailor a place to horsey fanatic like me (lol) you limit its appeal to a narrower band of buyers.

I suppose the OP in is a bit of a quandry. Damned if you do, damned if you don't (put an arena in, that is).

Are you moving Mrs M? Shall I pm you a link to my property on rightmove?
x
 
Whatever you decide I'd go for PP for 60m. I put 40x20 in when we moved here & am now extending it to 60m at the same price for the extension that I paid for the original 40x20!
 
Mari said:
Whatever you decide I'd go for PP for 60m. I put 40x20 in when we moved here & am now extending it to 60m at the same price for the extension that I paid for the original 40x20!
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I agree with this, if you are aiming for an equestrian audience I would invest in a 60 x 20 but not a 40 x 20.
 
MrsMozart said:
I would like the planning permission.

As a horse person it would then mean I could have a school built and I'd know what the construction was like and I could choose the surface.

If I was a non-horsey person then I'd think I'd be likely to get PO for any other leisure activity item, such as a tennis court or swimming pool (no idea if either if those need PP, but you get my drift).
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This exactly.

When we were looking for an equestrian property a few years ago, most of the arenas had surfaces/contruction that weren't what we wanted and planning permission would have been preferable.

(in the end we bought somewhere with 18 acres and did it all ourselves anyway :))

If you are going to build it, make sure it is really top notch construction with a super quality surface
 
yes, I would be reluctant to buy without, im so used to having my own.
I also say thr bigger the better.. go for the 20 x 60.. 20 x 40 not much cope with a 17.3.

I have an indoor too, and I am hoping that will attract a buyer, as it is super super great in the winter.. I can always ride.
 
My job is valuing and selling property. In my opinion you wont make your money back on it so I wouldnt bother. Having planning permission is great though, doesn't add value as such but will make your house more desirable than those that dont obviously.

I'm looking at houses right now for myself and have had to choose between one with a field, stables and a sand school and one with just a field (nothing else). I'd love to have a school and stabling but I wouldnt pay anything more for it. Then again though I'm not used to having a school, my horses have always been kept at my mums where I've only ever ridden in grass paddocks so I know I can do the same again! Depends what a person is used to.
 
I'm currently looking and have seen 2 with 20x40's but tbh the surfaces and drainage have been so poor that i'd rather to do it from scratch.

The one i'm interested in has the land and barn but would need to build stables and arena - prefering this option though :)
 
myhorsefred said:
I am trying to sell my house at the moment. I have an arena. Feedback I've had, is that non horsey peope are put off by the arena.

I have a new build farmhouse, american barn, 4 stables, fabulous hacking, near to beaches, lovely grazing, trailblazer centre about 10mins hack away, horsey area with lots of fun rides etc, etc but I'm struggling to sell. have reduced our price by 150k as well! still struggling to get viewers.

sorry, i've waffled, but yes, arena seems to put non horsey people off.
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This is interesting because we are trying to sell at the moment. We have land and arena and stables and I must admit most of the people looking are not horsey. We did have a buyer who was but they had to pull out as moving abroad suddenly. Bit worrying really and I am surprised we haven't had more horsey people to view.
 
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