[chriso]

I would love to make the next step up to owning a better smallholding but how do people afford it? I have a decent job with good salary but just can't see how I could justify purchasing something around £350k. 

How do others manage?

[doganjo]

Not that dear up everywhere, Chriso.  Where are you looking?  Are you restricted to a specifics area?

[chriso]

I've just been looking local but most decent smallholdings seem to be around that price, some very run down ones go a bit cheaper.

[Susie]

We never did figure out how to afford a proper smallholding especially when I gave up work to look after our young children. Instead we sold our house, bought 14 acres of land (no buildings) and rent a house nearby. We would need to win the lottery to actually buy the house we live in now, and we have vague dreams of being able to build a home on the land one day but its hugely unlikely. Not the conventional way to do it but it works for us and I'd recommend it as long as you can rent something nice very close to the land.

[mab]

At the moment I'm renting too. I did have to give up my good (as in well paid) job to come here though - I was in southwest london then, and nothing was going to come within my reach there.

mab

[Nina]

We moved... Fortunately (or unfortunately whichever way you look at it!) closer to my hubby's parents - To a 10 acre smallholding just over the Welsh border, for £240K.  House needed lots of work, but just about habitable if happy to rough it!  If we'd have stayed where we lived in Warwickshire £240K would have got us a semi-detached with a poxy garden...  Much that I miss family and friends back there, I love the land and animals we have now and wouldn't go back to my old house if you paid me!!!

We were fortunate in finding our place, but if you can't afford what you want yet, look to make a step in the right direction if you can, maybe not finding that permanent place that ticks all the boxes yet - But maybe somewhere you can improve and sell on to make some more money to put towards that perfect place...?

[bazzais]

My brother calls me 'the accidental businessman' (TAB not TAS - lol) - I started an internet website in 2001 that never paid a penny for years but in the last 4 years its sky-rocketed and has allowed me to buy a dilapidated smallholding with cold hard cash at the bottom(ish) of the market crash a year and a half ago.  Its been a dream come true that I feel I sometimes take for granted,  although the work has been immense and I think its going to be that way for the foreseeable future - but thats the fun!

I would never have bought something that was pristine though, even though I did have the money to do so - you can make you own home have more value through you own work with a wreck of a house - it also give you the chance to make your house a home (although I still live in a building site!!).  Go for something that needs doing up (its hard to find nowdays) - its cheaper and more satisfying when you finally get it done (if you can ever get to the final!!)

Ta

Baz

[ballingall]

Pick where you buy carefully, there are areas that are cheaper. I bought a house in joint names with my mum- there was no way I could afford land on my salary. She put a large lump of cash into the house, I have a mortgage for the rest.


Beth

[ellied]

I bought mine about 10 years ago when I could almost afford it on a full time salary but had to go for something without central heating, dilapidated decor and old fashioned double/secondary glazing in metal frames.  I have done the necessary work as I could afford it - oil CH, new bathroom, decorated and carpeted etc tho that needs redone now!) but it still has somewhat old fashioned features (doors etc).

It has increased in value so I now have equity in it and was overpaying the mortgage the last couple of years in order to have a chance now to ditch the job.  And although it dipped this year (was put at £300k earlier this year) hopefully it will go for more (offers over system plus hopefully a market recovery back towards the £350k mark) next year and I will be able to use the equity to buy land and start over as now I am not working a day job it is going to be impossible to raise a mortgage to get something even comparable in another area I want to move to.

I will either live in a log cabin if planning allow it, or a caravan, or a house down the road within walking distance if need be in order to move to somewhere I want to live my days.  And then make it work however I can.

[plumseverywhere]

we had to buy one that needed loads of work    in fact most of the rooms are stripped of paper and carpet and bare, have been so for a long time but we just live with it.  we also bought a holding with steep land in parts so that did not appeal to many who would prefer flat pasture but as we were buying goats it was perfect (and has done wonders for my thigh muscles carrying buckets up that hill!!)
also helped selling a house in london for silly money and being able to plough that into a large house in the midlands

[Sonia in Cornwall]

We live in a small rented cottage.  We also rent 4 acres of land about 3 miles away.  It's not ideal as we're not actually on site, but it's the only realistic way we could afford it at the moment.  It's a hassle having to go there every day, particularly juggling work as well, but we're up for the graft as it gives us as close as we can get to where we want to be. 

We'd love to be in a position to buy a 7 - 10 acre site with farmhouse - but that's pretty pie in the sky for us at the moment (unless i happen to find a winning lottery ticket!).   

I think it's about looking at the problem differently - don't assume the only way you can do it is to buy something ideal right now.  Break it down into what you really want, and can afford, and that fits into your lifestyle at the moment, and then find a way of doing that.  There will be compromises along the way, and it may take you on a more winding path than you think, but it makes the journey more interesting! 

Good luck. 

[Yeoman]

Good question.

We may be in exceptional times financially but it sometimes seems that those with money have been least affected by the recent financial turmoil.  I've seen, first hand, existing land owners going head to head at an auction to bid over £100k for 5 acres just to stop non farmers (dare I say like us) from getting hold of a piece of land.  The chap concerned didn't know who he was bidding against - he was going to have that land at any cost.  Its a very strange world!

How many years will he need to work that 5 acres to make a profit?

So why not put your money into buying a house in the right area then rent the land until you're rich and famous enough to afford the luxury of buying.  Another advantage of renting is that you stay flexible - so if a better piece of land comes up you can grab it more easily.

[katie]

We've also bought a chunk of land but live 6 miles away at the moment. If we get planning, we'll live on it. If not, we'll buy something nearer as at the moment it's costing us a lot in diesel and time. We would have liked the Georgian farmhouse with acreage but...life's all about compromise!

[egglady]

so many similar stories.  like others, we couldnt afford what we wanted, so settled for less and doing what we can, when we can afford it.  we bought a run down old cottage that was half the size of our last house and about 6 acres - house is onsite which is brilliant.  we'd have liked more but that was never gonna happen with what we had to spend, so we just keep looking locally to see if anything comes along that we might be able to afford...someday!

agree with everyone else that you have to decide what you 'have' to have as a minimum and work towards that - the rest is luxury.

[chriso]

Well choosing a place that needs a bit of work done would be the obvious choice but you try telling our lass that. She's not into the animal side of things so is struggling with the whole idea.