Updating post from Reddit.
I have seen a few Road ways like above coming up for sale in auction. Not sure why anyone would be interested in buying/investing in these. If people living in the area (as a community) buying it, it makes sense - although it’s difficult to bring all the neighbours together in this. However random people seem to be bidding for these. How is it even possible to make money on these. What am I not seeing here….
First hand experience story time - my family was selling land for development and the whole thing came down to access. The lane to the land was owned by someone else and to gain an easement to allow for people to drive down the road to get to there houses we had to effectively buy the easement. Which they could ask what ever they want.
So effectively I’d see them as lottery tickets. If someone wants to build a new housing estate at the end of your road that you own. They could be paying you a % of what that development is worth to the land owner.
Not really as it depends what's on the deeds and if it is declared as a public right of way, but occasionally you could strike lucky.
Another form of income is repair and service charges, being what is on the deeds of the surrounding properties, however slowly legislation is killing that money train as well.
Parking charges could be an option???
I know that happens with land, it is called a ransom strip!
If you don't like someone who lives on that road you could turn it into lava
Last time I done this it solidified within 24 hours even after spraying it, no idea what I was doing wrong so I instead started to grow potatoes and I am waiting for my first harvest this year
Growing potatoes in lava sounds like a great way to get pre-baked potatoes without involving Big Microwave, or even Big Oven.
Solid investment.
Could charge a management commission for repairs I suppose? Has to be something in it.
What do we have councils for again?
Depends whether the road has been adopted or not. Councils don't maintain roads they haven't been paid to by the developers.
They also won't adopt roads that aren't built to their standards, which isn't uncommon on new build estates.
Indeed, I am a civil engineer by trade and submitted many adoptions
Mailing out council tax bills and business rates demands.
So I live on an unadopted road in a large housing estate. There's no plan for adoption by council so I'm left worried what happens when the streets collapse.
There's no service charges on my deeds so I don't know legally what even happens, it's always been a worry but a lot of new estates don't get adopted.
Wow, I used to rent a lock up there where the new development bit is on the first bend - There was a bunch of 10 lock up garages, tilting into the river and I used to pay 5 quid a week to rent it to store a car there - Obviously the guy who owned them made a fortune, and looks like they built flats there - the space was tiny, it was just a little corner looking plot with 10 little lock ups on it - For ref, this was back in about 1984 ish
You could stick a locking gate on the front of it and charge people a monthly fee for access.
I think if that's the only road in then it becomes illegal or something, it's like if the only way to drive on to one field is to go through another field then it has to be allowed. I imagine if there's peoples houses on the road then you're going to have one hell of a fight enforcing it.
It's likely the council didn't want to adopt them off of the delvolper due to the way they don't tend to make them wide enough or use bricks etc and they want to get rid of them when they get told the council doesn't want them
Councils don't adopt roads on newly built estates and haven't done so for some time. There may be some councils that do but the vast majority do not.
They can still be offered for adoption. (Certainly Herts will).
The big house builders don't seem to as it is a major hassle. They tend to keep them in a management company and pass on the costs to the home owners.
If we are to buy it separately, it may be little difficult to enforce the maintenance fees I guess - as mentioned in the other comments.
I've no experience of that, so wouldn't know.
A lot of new build estate get the main roads adopted by the councils, then the private roads gets split between the new home owners so they own each part so not anyone person can control it
So, what happens when the road needs repairs?
Nothing lmfao
I can see that this a system that works. lol
Various reasons, almost always speculative - in your example, I think it's very important that this road goes from the main road all the way to the greenery behind the estate - if anyone wants to buy and develop that green land in the future, then they'll want to use this ready-made road to access it. Whilst all the current residents on that estate likely have access rights, the new estate absolutely would not, and what might be bought for a few thousand right now could be worth tens of thousands in the future.
Similarly it's why you see people buying up random small plots, garage blocks etc - the hope is for a change or use on or near what they've bought so they can sell for a profit down the line.
In the meantime, you might find that there's a small charge for the houses to use that road, for maintenance or similar...whilst it's unlikely to be profit-generating, it helps with the upkeep. might even create a few $$, and basically makes it worth the risk.
I've thought about this and wondered the same. I will guess: maintenance payments from the leasehold, statutory undertaker fees from when they want to dig the road up for fibre etc.
I think you're basically paying for the final millimeter to the very east the rest is just included.
It looks like it could be effectively a ransom strip. Historically the value can be quite high when someone ones to build or extend a development behind it and you own the access to it. In the meantime your probably have to maintain it since it’s a road.
So they can turn it into a toll road :)