Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Buying a smallholding.  (Read 11776 times)

TomBarbs

  • Joined Aug 2011
Buying a smallholding.
« on: August 31, 2011, 10:04:52 pm »
Hello again,  :wave:

thanks for all the welcomes,

We are keeping an eye out to buy a smallholding, but they are few and far between and expensive in wiltshire.  >:(

Could anybody help us with some info on different areas of england, for smallholdings.

We noticed there are a few of you from wales and we have done some searches in wales and like the look of wales.  ;D What do any of you reccomend?     

Sorry if posted in wrong place.

Many thanks

Steven and Zoe  :bouquet:

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2011, 11:29:11 pm »
Good luck with your search!!  We live in the Peak District in Derbyshire, and prices are very high, even for houses with no land. 

Having looked myself, Wales and Scotland are more reasonably priced that where we are.  Norfolk too and Lincolnshire.  But you have to consider things like work - how far you are from towns/cities.  No use having the smallholding, and then spend lots of time travelling. Although I know a few people who have moved to the country, and the husbands like in London in the week, as salares there are higher.

Sandy

  • Guest
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2011, 11:32:48 pm »
I would love ( in my head and not my body) some land and when we thought about selling up I looked at places to rent or buy cheaply and came up with Wales or Southern Ireland! main issue is work!! cheap places to buy mean no near buy work!! Mum was born in N Wales, very similar to scotland......land is expensive so good luck, little bits like small holdings are way more expensive that big farms. I suggest you go to a land agent and see if you can rent for a while. I am a big believer in it will come to  you if its right!! good luck

benkt

  • Joined Apr 2010
  • Cambridgeshire
    • Hempsals Community Farm
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2011, 12:28:57 am »
Yes, some places are much cheaper than others, which can be a good thing. However, as Roxy and Sandy have said there is usually a reason why they are cheaper - less work available. This also has a knock on effect if you're trying to run a business from your smallholding, that there is less disposable income around to pay premium prices for premium organic pork/veg/honey/what-have-you.
That said, you can only buy what you can afford. Don't just look at established smallholdings as they are always very expensive, try property auctions or consider buying land on the edge of a village and buying/renting in the village as this is another cheaper way to get started.
Where there's a will there's a way!

Crofter

  • Joined Jan 2009
  • Isle of Lewis
  • We'll get there!
    • Ravenstar
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2011, 08:28:21 am »
We bought a house and the lease of the Croft on the Isle of Lewis and we've never looked back! It's a very different lifestyle with, as Benkt says, no market for Organics. That said people will pay a fair price for local produce here.
We reckon our Croft about breaks even and feeds us too, the income comes from doing B&B which is still in short supply here in the summer.
Comfortable B&B on a working Croft on the Isle of Lewis. www.Ravenstar.co.uk

Sandy

  • Guest
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2011, 09:21:11 am »
Crofter you B&B looks lovely, a nice set up but I also recon that small holders need another sub income to tick over as stuff is expensive eg feed, equiptment, fencing, vet stuff etc. Our B&B is busy all of the year but still only pays its own way, we will never be rich from it but like the life we lead most of the time, our chickens are begining to stop laying for winter so the feed is costing us more with few eggs in return!!! Some ideal jobs for small holders would be working from home ones like IT or similar!!! Off now to feed my dogs and chickens!

Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2011, 09:40:18 am »
I have looked at buying a small cottage, say in Wales, and then a parcel of land nearby ....friends of mine have done this, and are happy with what they did, and they have not ended up with a massive mortgage!!

smallholder in the city

  • Joined Jul 2010
  • Lincolnshire
    • HootersHall
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2011, 11:19:29 am »
We've just bought and moved into our smallholding. We had to be able to commute to London but anywhere in Kent / Surrey / Sussex was well out of our price range. We ended up in South Lincolnshire just over the border from Cambridgeshire and found this was one of the more affordable areas. We tended to look for smaller houses with more land as there are ony the 2 of us. Although our place is a 2 bed bungalow it's actually got much bigger rooms than the 3 bed house we had in London. We also have 6.2 acres and some decent outbuildings. 

   

Fowgill Farm

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2011, 12:50:05 pm »
In our area of North Yorkshire property prices are awful, lots of equestrian interest in anything with land that comes up, prices for a 4 bed house with approx 6 acres start at £500k+ and it probably needs renovating! ::)
and the farmers round here are all fairly large outfits they often buy these properties for the land and bulldoze the house or use it for extended family/workers.
Theres not much chance for people starting out, you've got to try and get in before a property actually goes on the market which is what we did 7 years ago. The farm was split into 3 lots, 2 of land and one inc the house, the resident tenants wanted to buy the two lots of land but weren't intrested in the house part so we dived in as we knew the farmers who were tenants. A lot of the time its not what you know but who you know and local knowledge.
Mandy  :pig:

goosepimple

  • Joined May 2010
  • nr Lauder, Scottish Borders
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2011, 12:56:11 pm »
Hello Tom, you'll get much more for your money north of the border - there are lots of english folks in the lovely scottish borders - its beautiful here!
registered soay, castlemilk moorit  and north ronaldsay sheep, pygmy goats, steinbacher geese, muscovy ducks, various hens, lots of visiting mallards, a naughty border collie, a puss and a couple of guinea pigs

TomBarbs

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2011, 06:47:32 pm »
Hi,

Just got in from work.

Thanks for all of your input its great, we did wonder that about cheaper holdings meaning less work about, we don't need to commute to London as we both work not to far from home. I'm a carpenter and Zoe is a medical receptionist.

A little dilemma.  ???

Just don't know what to do.

We will have a look into renting some land/ land agents.

Thanks again

Steven and Zoe   :bouquet:


Rich/Jan

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2011, 08:23:21 am »
Hi all - we lived in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and kept rare breeds of poultry, before moving to France.  We moved partly because of the climate (I have arthritis) and partly as the idea of renovating a house and having land appealed to us.  We now have 20hectares - down to primarily sheep, 5 pigs, geese, ducks, chickens, dog, cats etc plus all the wild animals like deer, hares, rabbits, wild boar and load of other wildlife like buzzards, masses of red kites and black kites, and quite a few hectares down to woodland.  Unfortunately as far as a smallholding is concerned it isnt the same in France.  You can keep animals on the land but there are lots of red tape and hoops to jump through if you keep more than just a few animals.  The house has now been (well almost) renovated and my OH pretty much concentrates on the animals.  We are self sufficient as far as meat and some veg goes so our outgoings are not much - we use our wood to cut for central heating fuel.  We spend more on animal feed than on ourselves. Prices in general (food, clothes) in France are now dearer than in the UK - but well worth thinking about a move over here if it is land you want.  Houses for renovation are available fairly reasonably with or without land and France has almost the same population as UK but with about four times the amount of land.  It is worth investigating the possibility of moving if you are not dependant on an income from a job.  Please dont hesitate to get in touch if you want more info re smallholdings over here.

suziequeue

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Llanidloes; Powys
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #12 on: September 02, 2011, 09:29:33 am »
We have a ten acre smallholding in Wales which is absolutely perfect. The day we went to see it was a real OMFG moment.

Suitably isolated but with helpful friendly neighbours. Beautiful views. We will NEVER leave

We weren't looking for a place in this area and came across it through a website called Rural Scene (http://www.ruralscene.co.uk/look/frame.asp )

God luck in your search.
We do the best we can with the information we have

When we know better we do better

smallholder in the city

  • Joined Jul 2010
  • Lincolnshire
    • HootersHall
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2011, 03:08:28 pm »
As regards where to find places for sale. We trawled rightmove endlessley but you can't search for properties with land, Globrix website lets you search for properties with a certain number of acres and primelocation has a specialist bit for land and farms, rural scene is quite good and if you're looking around east anglia try eaequestrian.

Registering with local agents can be a bit hit and miss. Some were great, others not interested or kept sending us inappropriate properties.

If you would be in a position to consider a property with an agricultural tie acorus specialises http://www.acorus.co.uk/property-search.php

There's also uklandandfarms  http://www.uklandandfarms.co.uk/
smallholding centre for south west wales http://thesmallholdingcentre.co.uk/
and greenshifters http://www.greenshifters.co.uk/list/3

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Buying a smallholding.
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2011, 03:24:30 pm »
We had an offer accepted today on the smallholding that we were after.  I am so excited. Keeping my fingers crossed now that all goes through ok.

Ours is through estate agents John Francis and is in Llangeitho near Tregaron. There are other good estate agents around such as West Wales Properties, JJ Morris, Evans Bros.  They all have smallholdings on their books

Sally
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

 

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