Buying land?

[Robson Valley]

Yeah. Friends of mine, some that I worked with, did house-sitting for a decade for snow birds.

I have always needed my own place to make my own nest and make my own mess.
Second homes are or were commonplace in my family. Just seems like there's always a second house to live in,
ever since a I was a little kid = we just do it.
England? Grand Bahama? Australia?

It's a fact of determination. Where do you want to go and what do you want to do?
There's no need to tell me, my family already knows our answers. You do your thing.

 

[Seabeggar]

With regard to UK land prices this article link while a bit long winded gives an idea of the causes of the problems of land distribution in our country. As outlined it has its routes in events of 1066 !

http://www.newstatesman.com/life-and-society/2011/03/million-acres-land-ownership

Just a little quote.....
Andy Wightman, author of The Poor Had No Lawyers: Who Owns Scotland (And How They Got It), quoting figures from the Scottish government: "During the ten years from 2000 to 2009, the top 50 recipients of agricultural subsidy received £168m - an average of over £3.3m per farmer. Among the top 50 are some of Scotland's wealthiest landowners, including the Earl of Moray, Leon Litchfield, the Earl of Seafield, Lord Inchcape, the Earl of Southesk, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Rosebery and the Duke of Roxburghe." The crucial point is that the subsidy ultimately winds up with landowners, giving them greater flexibility in relation to the release of land for building homes. Wightman cites the case of Frank A Smart & Son Ltd, a company that owns 39 farms in Speyside. In 2009 it received over £1.2m in single farm subsidy, the largest payment in Scotland. The same company sold 18 building plots and six building properties on one of its farms, bought for £300,000 in 1991, for £1.3m. It made a profit of over £3.1m in 2008, and in March 2009 sold 24 plots of land with planning consent for more than £2.9m. This pattern is repeated throughout the UK. A subsidy originally intended to help poor farmers winds up padding the profits of rich landowners......

Presumably better to keep the land, claim the subsidy and only drip feed a few small building plots to keep the price high ?

 

[boatman]

So do you want all or most farm land built on? Or can you accept that if there is a subsidy on agricultural land then those with the most land will receive the most subsidy? And add in hill farming premiums.

 

[Seabeggar]

Hi Boatman, the little quote on Scottish farms is only part of a broader discussion in the article that covers other aspects of why land ownership in the UK, even a small patch is beyond the reach of many of those who would like to buy even an acre. The full article address's your question in part. I don't expect land reform in this country, the present system is just an evolution of feudalism with powerful vested interests. The whole question of what would constitute a fair farming subsidy system is beyond me, I would start on the premise that it was for poorer farmers on marginal land ? I don't know, are all British farms unprofitable without subsidy ? Certainly appreciate the very real problems of the dairy industry at present.

 

[santaman2000]

.....The whole question of what would constitute a fair farming subsidy system is beyond me, I would start on the premise that it was for poorer farmers on marginal land ? I don't know, are all British farms unprofitable without subsidy ?....

The real farms here don't receive subsidies. However there are large land holders (upwards of 1000 acres) that recieve subsidies. Often those subsidies are to encourage them to refrain from growing certain crops.

The thinking behind whatever subsidies (corruption aside) is to control (stabilize) food prices; "fairness" isn't an issue.

 

[Janne]

There is s difference in value for different quality land. Prime agri land is much mote valuable than land fit only for sheep.

The land I bought ( around £15000) needed to have drainage dug and installed, serious de weeding ( was covered in Ragworth, brambles, wild prunes) hedges created, and so on.

You can find cheap land in UK.

 

[boatman]

You can't find cheap land in the UK unless you can buy a big chunk.

 

[Janne]

Read my post again. I bought 6 acres ( 4 acres "field", 2 acres woodland) in very bad condition for about £15000 in 2001 or 2002. In East Sussex, between the villages Mayfield and Five Ashes.

Of course prices are higher now, I would think similar land is maybe 25000 or so?

I did some serious improvements including a steel framed barn and sold it for a good profit.

Check with your local land agent and see what is on offer.

Edit: you can buy 9 acres ( field, woodland) WITH RIVER FRONTAGE and fishing tights, situated at Woodford, Bude, Corneall for £50 000.
I did a quick sesrch, got a site called Onthemarket.com

 

[santaman2000]

Read my post again. I bought 6 acres ( 4 acres "field", 2 acres woodland) in very bad condition for about £15000 in 2001 or 2002. In East Sussex, between the villages Mayfield and Five Ashes.

Of course prices are higher now, I would think similar land is maybe 25000 or so?

I did some serious improvements including a steel framed barn and sold it for a good profit.

Check with your local land agent and see what is on offer.

Edit: you can buy 9 acres ( field, woodland) WITH RIVER FRONTAGE and fishing tights, situated at Woodford, Bude, Corneall for £50 000.
I did a quick sesrch, got a site called Onthemarket.com

Do those prices include mineral rights?

 

[Janne]

Yes, according to the agent's site.

I do not expect you will find much there though.

Of course, plots of land with the right to build a house are much more expensive.

 

[santaman2000]

Yes, according to the agent's site.

I do not expect you will find much there though.

Of course, plots of land with the right to build a house are much more expensive.

Six to nine acres without the right to build (I assume if you can't build a house, then you also can't build a commercial business?) aren't really worth much of anything (price aside) It's not a big enough piece to be viably profitable farming.

 

[Janne]

Six to nine acres without the right to build (I assume if you can't build a house, then you also can't build a commercial business?) aren't really worth much of anything (price aside) It's not a big enough piece to be viably profitable farming.

If you can prove you need a barn / building to do whatever agricultural activity you want to do, then they will aprove it.

I wanted sheep on my land. One of those rare breeds.
To save the breed, to help clearing the land naturally, to keep it cleared.
You need a barn to house extra food, shelter for the sheep and so on.
That was the official reason for the barn. Pure BS.
Sadly the sheep never happened, it just a way to get planning permission.
But I did have my old Porsche tractor in the barn.
2 cylinder Diesel engine, red.
My wife loved driving it.

The guy I sold the land to made some kind of gardening business on it.
So even if I fooled the Council into letting me build a barn, the end result was that the derelict land was restored, drained and msintained properly, and somebody could make a living of it.

 

[General Strike]

I have a feeling that there are some tax benefits in woodland. No capital gains or inheritance tax liability?? So some owners may be using the land as a financial vehicle, and driving prices up that way. (What do they care how much land they get, if it's just the bit of paper they want!)
The last bit I looked at, was about an acre, on a local hillside (Dorset) and the guide price was £15k. A bit high for scrub land, right next to where the farmer puts his spoil heap from the mushrooms to fester. Excellent ham radio site though, which was what interested me.

Something that I came across when looking at land a while ago, that sporting rights don't always come with the land. I assume that these have been sold off when the plots were part of some bigger area. So although there may not be anything to hunt, someone else may have some rights on your property.

Things you can do: I also recall seeing something about being able to live on the land for so many days per year to do forestry work?? And being allowed to put up shelter for workers and tool storage.

Jules

I think that in England the sporting rights always go to the land holder (who may then dispose of them as he or she will), but certainly in Scotland, it seems quite common to sell sporting rights off separately.

I may be mistaken.

 

[santaman2000]

I think that in England the sporting rights always go to the land holder (who may then dispose of them as he or she will), but certainly in Scotland, it seems quite common to sell sporting rights off separately.

I may be mistaken.

So y'all sell sporting rights outright? It's getting common here (much too common) to lease out deer hunting rights; but not to sell them. Obviously annual leases provide the land owner a better (more steady) income than selling would.

 

[boatman]

£10,000 an acre is more realistic in Cornwall. Can't see that land at Bude. Don't mistake guide prices for what you will eventually pay. Checked on a small piece, .69 of an acre, recently and the owner wants £16,000 that even the estate agent thought was a tad excessive but they will probably get it. Woodlands for sale go about £45,000 for about four acres. Four acres near Chysauster Iron Age Village went a few years ago for £50,000.

 

[Janne]

Www.onthemarket.com
Agent is Stags - Launceston. Www.stags.co.uk


For me that would be the ideal place as it has river frontage with fishing rights!

 

[boatman]

Offers in excess of £50,000, final price anyone's guess.

 

[Janne]

If I was searching for a "man playground" I would offer that, and wait and see.

To have a river is a huge bonus. I had only a stream, and that was super.

 

[boatman]

Wait a long time.

 

[Janne]

Not if the owner wants to sell, and you ate the only one bidding. That is how I bought my old land.
Bid the asking price.