We were in a very similar position, we wanted a smallholding but were priced out of the market because we are self employed and could not get a mortgage. Our budget was no more than £140,000 and we realised very quickly that we had little chance of success, a house and land for that did not look hopeful.
But then we started to think outside the box. If we could not get a mortgage to increase the budget could we get a loan? We managed to get two short term loans for £25,000 each, increasing our budget to £190,000 but still not enough to buy anywhere we looked at. So, we looked into buying just the land and doing the field to farm route, I could not convince myself it was achievable given the potential planning issues for our area, North East Wales. We thought about buying land withing 3 miles of our exsisting home but nothing really ever came on the market.
So we started to believe it was something that only others would achieve, everything we looked at was well over £300,000. Then we struck on an idea that gave us a chance to make it happen. Old pubs, you see lots closing being converted into houses. Could any of those have land attached? I signed up to two specialist websites, Fleurets and Christie & Co and within a few minutes found where I am posting this from, a 300 year old stone built 4 bedroom pub with 3.5 aces in a small hamlet, all for the grand total of £175,000. The house across the road was built around the same period and has no land and sold for £420,000 3 years ago.
It took a good deal of educating myself on the subject of planning for residential use and how not to pay the vat on commercial properties but that was only time missing alot of telly at night trawling the internet.
Topic: Where are all the affordable smallholdings!? (Read 9150 times)
