[Daisys Mum]

Have you looked at buying a farm cottage and either renting land from the farm or buying some from them. There are a few farms around here that seem to have done that, with the new farm payment rules that require farms to exclude areas that are not considered useable it may be that small parcels of land will be easier to come by.
I live in a village but have been able to persuade the neighbouring farmer to sell me 6 acres which is behind my house , it is on a hill and was not really of much use to him as it was purely grazing and he had to drive sheep throuh the village to access it.

[ballingall]

I know it is hard, and I may not be able to afford to stay here forever, so I am half expecting to end up keeping a few goats in a back garden sometime ahead. My sister has been looking for someplace with land for over 10 years- but she has been looking in a very specific area which is very expensive to buy in. They may have found something now- but only because the school catchment areas have changed! And they need to seel their their house before they can put in an offer- worrying times ahead!

Beth

[Hilarysmum]

Its the reason so many want to be smallholders moved to France.

[Frieslandfilly]

I can sympathise with the last comment Chriso, 3 years ago we bought 5 acres and a 'shed' which we live in, one of our daughters was into animals and horses the other is not, we moved from a newly refurbished 4 bedroom detached bungalow in to a dilapidated wooden construction that is livable but certainly not luxury. The not into animals daughter constantly moaned for the first 2 years (made worse by the fact that she didn't even have a bedroom, they sleep on the sofa's). However year 3 has seen a turning point in her, she will now admit that she loves living here, she loves the wildlife, the stars, and even the animals (not that she has much to do with them but will help out if necessary). She was an older teen when we moved here and I did feel a bit guilty but I explained to her that she was at the begining of her adult life and likely to move on and do the things she wants to do, we are in the middle of our lives and would like to do something that we want to do!

[Frieslandfilly]

Sorry I meant Chriso's last comment about his lass, just to clear up any confusion

[Anke]

We found the only way to afford a house with land (in a 50 miles radius from Edinburgh, as OH works there) was to buy a building plot with land, then rent for a couple of years (we managed to use the interest from the sale of our Edinburgh house to pay for the rent and had two children at 3 years and 18 months at the time - so static caravan was not an option) while the house got built. Still got a hefty mortgage, but you have to decide on your income situation beforehand, then find the solution and the location.

If you bought a building plot you could get easily PP for a static caravan, start the holding and make a start on building the house. You can then do it as slowly or as quickly as finances allow, or build a small house first, but have the plans approved for a big one (extensions) over time.

However renting land and living nearby (either owned or rented) sounds like a good compromise - especially if not all family members are that keen on the smallholding idea.

[benkt]

We found our solution by buying a place that needs a lot of work, is in an undesirable (for some) location and that was at auction. I never thought we'd be able to get anything nearly as good as this, but a lot of late nights surfing the web for possibilities finally paid off!

[chriso]

It certainly is good to see how others have managed, thanks everyone for all the comments and real life examples, it gives some hope to those of us on the outside looking in.

[chriso]

I forgot to say there is a place very near to me now reduced to 250k with 5 acre, house needs a bit doing to it and the land looks like it needs drainage sorting.
Now another question - how to convince the other half?

[loosey]

Our solution came in the form of renting - I looked for 3 years, found the house, took 18 months to get a viewing and then a further 5 months to find out we had it. The house is part of an estate of 7 farms which have all been let smallholdings for the past 160 years, they are not allowed to be sold.

We have signed a 5 year farming tenancy and at the end of that can sign for either 5, 10, 15 or 25 years (all of our neighbours have signed the latter).

If the house we live in now was on the market it would fetch way over £600k ... we rent it for £950 a month. I make myself take a few minutes every day to remember how lucky I am to have eventually found it!!

[benkt]

@Chriso
How to convince the other half... well for me it worked well that the farmhouse we've bought is big (4 bedrooms) and she gets a free rein in deciding how its done up. I spend all night trying to decide what breed of pig to go for next and she sits next to me designing kitchens - win, win!