[Troubled Waters]

Hi there,

Apologies as this will be very similar to the France post.

We want to move and buy some land for a smallholding, we obviously want the best we can get for our pennies.  But we need to research.  We can't property hunt over a huge area so narrowing down of choices is good!

So...Wales?
Why is it a good place for a small holding?
What are the drawbacks?
Length of growing season/climate?
Good for livestock?
Ease of integration to community?

Sorry for the barrage of questions but although I am scouring the net info can be hard to come by in a concise form and nothing compares to the experiences of those there doing it!

Thanking one and all.

[Castle Farm]

A great deal depends on how far you want to travel back to see friends and relations.
The farther west you go the better value for money,but to far west and you pay for a sea view.
The deeper in you get the more you will need a 4x4 and be able to reverse a lot.
We are near Hay-on-Wye,(considered a safe area ) What sort of place are you looking for and what plans do you have.
We viewed 65 places before we found this and travelled from near Guildford nearly every weekend for almost 3 years.
You cannot judge what the area/climate/growing season/etc until you find the place.
We google mapped every agents property details and checked what was there from google earth.
I want to die here,as I never want to go through that again.
Agents lie through their teeth and the place is never how you think it will be.

[Troubled Waters]

Hi Castle Farm,

We are looking for about 10 acres I think. Veg, animals and some own energy production. OH wants some wood, I want a stream.  Would like an annex to let for holiday homes and mayhap space for a tiny CL caravan site for a little income.

Don't mind travel, not much in the way of family and have always lived far from them.

I know parts are predominately Welsh speaking and hard to integrate to.  We just want to work hard and be part of a community.

What sort of property did u find after all that hard work? Thanks for the tips.

[Castle Farm]

HelloTW.
You can never find everything on the wish list.Ours were.
Had to be good riding country and got it.
Had to have room for MIL. it had a very large barn with PP for a 3 bed house on it,but I filled it with junk and MIL bought a new place in Hay-on Wye

No near neighbours, as we had the neighbours from hell in Surrey and I keep lots of rare breed poultry.

But the first thing you need to look at is the land.You can do things to the house and garden, but if the land is crap your stuffed.
Took 5 months to sort the house,buildings and build a garden (no garden here when we bought it)

I used a check list and knocked what it cost of the price they were asking..Fencing 2k and a major clean up of rubbish 5k.
They asked £425.000 we got it for £380.000 but we were in a rental up here by then and ready to move quickly and besides that if your in the n'hood you hear of places.

Forget wind power/solar power much to expensive to set up and run.You need a wood full of ash and a woodburner.Just starting putting a 4 acre wood in and in a few years time after I'm gone my missus can sell it with a renewable energy source.We spent 33k on it and we been told it's marketable now at around £510k

No worries about the Welsh thing.If you move into anywhere and enter into things you'll be fine.
pictures on my web page.

www.castlefarmeggs.co.uk