property - help needed!

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Vicki_Krystal

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vpequestrian.weebly.com
hi guys!

im looking for my own place at the moment and have been looking through all the regular sites for places ect.

my question is - where do i look for;

a) just a field as such - so i can build my own place ( subject to planning!)
or
b) a house only with adaquate land to build a yard ect

do i just look at mainstream estate agents or specialist ones?

sorry if this is a dumb question!

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Very difficult to buy a field and get planning,better to be rich and buy ready made .lol
Rural scene ,primelocations [ but you will need to put quite a high price in search to get the properties with land.]
 
Most areas have a land/farm based estate business, see if you have one or two in your area.
 
I think you have to be prepared to look absolutely everywhere to find the right place. A few years ago we were looking to buy an equestrian property at a budget price and we signed up with some country/equestrian agents who frankly just laughed at us. But we kept scouring all the property papers until eventually we found the place we have now. Interestingly, it wasn't advertised very well as the headline was just "Looking for paddocks" and no photo, so I assumed that it was paddocks only til I read on and saw there was a cottage as well.
 
Don't write off not getting PP for a field. A few years ago the estate opposite us sold 2 fields, just grass fields, nothing in them. Both now have yards. One is 8 acres and has a stable block which has 6 stables and a tiny arena. The other is 10 acres and has a pretty big building with 12 stables! Think they are building an arena soon.

Don't forget you can apply for PP even on property you don't own. Phone the local council and have a chat to them and get the help from a company like Acorus......well worth it!

Good Luck
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Plotsearch is the largest website for plots and you'll get good details about outline planning permissions, etc. Having said that, you are extremely unlikely to find a rural plot, since Councils do not approve planning permissions for new houses in the country-side easily (there are some exceptions, such as building a house to go with a farm where the farm is already a going concern, but one of the residents will have to be a farmer). Most plots are urban or semi-urban in-fill, e.g. someone's back garden, and not suitable for setting up a horsey business. Your best bet might be converting a farm which already has outbuildings into stables, but a large number of people will be after these properties including developers who will be wanting to turn the outbuildings into new houses which means prices can be astronomical! If you find a house with sufficient land be very careful about finding out about planning restrictions and what your local council is likely to allow, e.g. they may have concerns about road access and refuse a commerical use for the premises. Getting planning permission for stables ONLY, no house, is easier but again check before you buy. A planning consultant can also be worth his weight in gold if you find a plot you like but are unsure if you can get PP. They generally tend to be former planning officers who have both the general knowledge and local contacts and will work for you to find a way around problems.

http://www.buildstore.co.uk/findingland/

Try also Build It magazine which runs regular features for self-builders.

http://www.self-build.co.uk/
 
Its really hard trying to find places when you're on a budget - particularly with the UK market as it is.

When we first started looking in the uk, the overwhelming advice that we got from agents was not to limit our areas
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They said the fact was that if we wanted something reasonably ready made, we had to face the fact that the demand was high and we'd need to be willing to cast a larger net
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It wasnt too bad for us as my fiance was working away in london 5 days a week anyway.

My friend bought a 12 acre piece of land with the idea of building a livery yard and eventually getting planning for a house. The yard went up relatively fast (within about 2 years) but shes still battling for planning for a house 8 years on. Not living on site has also caused her endless problems with people breaking in, horses getting sick and so on. Indeed my OH mentioned this idea for us... buying a house and then looking for a small plot of land with stables elsewhere but i refused.

When we moved here, we decided to focus on the land and its potential for stables (or existing stables) as the priority. We were going to go for somewhere quite derelict that at least had sufficient land for what we wanted and preferably with a couple of stables.

As it happens we got lucky and found a perfect house with adequate stables and the potential to be amazing.

Id try contacting as many agents as you can, both mainstream and those who specialise in equestrian properties and ask them to be placed on their mailing list for suitable properties. Id try and make the area you're looking at as large as possible. While i know it can be hard with work, i think you'll have more luck if youre flexible in this area. Most of all, id keep as much of an open mind as possible. Its the land thats hard to come by these days, so keep that as the priority. If the house needs work, so be it but you cant just gain extra land.

Sadly, all options are pricey. Even with the land, building the stables and, more specifically, adding a school is an extremely costly affair (i know claire mentioned her new school for the livery yard has cost in the region of 50,000 pounds - although granted, its large). At least if you have the land, you can stagger the building of the equestrian facilities perhaps?

A lot of this is budget dependent though!
 
thanks so much everyone!

you have given me loads to go on with!!

unfortunatly i am tied to luton / stanstead area as without my job i cannot afford the horses - which would be pointless! lol

and had to laugh at the Tiptree one!! dont quite have a spare million hanging around!!!

will have a better look at the Thurleigh one as i like it!

dad on the other hand thinks that old house means big money on upkeep!
 
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thanks so much everyone!

you have given me loads to go on with!!

unfortunatly i am tied to luton / stanstead area as without my job i cannot afford the horses - which would be pointless! lol

and had to laugh at the Tiptree one!! dont quite have a spare million hanging around!!!

will have a better look at the Thurleigh one as i like it!

dad on the other hand thinks that old house means big money on upkeep!

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, don't laugh! I was trying
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It is lovely though....
 
Have you thought about Norfolk/Suffolk. I live on Norfolk/Suffolk border and Stansted is about 50 minutes away from me. I think property is a bit cheaper out this way. Newmarket would be even closer to Stansted and probably has quite a bit of horsey property on the market but is also probably quite pricey. Mind you, you probably know all this already as you went on the Operation Esther convoy. Just a thought though.
 
The Thurleigh house has been on the market for a long time at that price so you would have good bargaining power if they do want to sell!
 
[ QUOTE ]
hi guys!

im looking for my own place at the moment and have been looking through all the regular sites for places ect.

my question is - where do i look for;

a) just a field as such - so i can build my own place ( subject to planning!)
or
b) a house only with adaquate land to build a yard ect

c) do i just look at mainstream estate agents or specialist ones?

sorry if this is a dumb question!

confused.gif
laugh.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Hi,

I stumbled across this thread while checking out an advert I had placed, and could not resist registering to respond.

I need to declare an interest before I post as I'm a director of one of the companies mentioned.

There are some very good points raised but to answer the original question, which is not dumb at all, we were all in that quandry once.

a) just a field as such.

If there is any short term chance of getting planing approval it would either be priced us such or the vendor will sit on it till they can build or sell with PP. This option is only for someone with a lot of stamina and patience. Permission for a yard is not normally difficult but the next step of getting pp for accommodation is a minefield and seldom successful.

b) a house only with adaquate land to build a yard ect.

If you are a practical person this has got to be the most cost-effective option. A self managed manege project that costs 10k to build adds twice that to the value. You get the opportunity to have the yard to your own design and all is new.

Going down this route, talk to your local planning office at the beginning, they are generally very helpful and one of the few sources of unbiased free advice, you may even find that for certain projects like stables in a garden you don't even need PP.

Down side is it will take a while before everything is up and running but with good planing that should not be a huge obstacle.

c:) do i just look at mainstream estate agents or specialist
ones?

I need to be careful how I answer this so that I do not breach Nag and Dogs T&C re advertising.

Simple answer is do both. At a specialist agent you know all the properties on their web site will have land and should be priced sensibly and the details and photos should tell you what you need to know.

However, if you have the patience, it may be worth wading through the local agents for that gem that everyone else has missed. You do still see the odd property that the local agent has not got a clue how to value and has often disguised the fact that it has land because that is not their core market. Why the vendor has put it on with them is another question??

There is another way to get the equestrian property of your dreams at a bargain price with a little patience and far less risk than option a:).

Much of the value of an equestrian property is what we call the marriage value, the premium that is added when you attach a home to a yard or to land that makes it worth vastly more than the sum of its parts.

If you see a plot of land come up at agricultural values that has got a number of houses directly attached to it, buy it. Use it as pasture or rent it out and wait. Eventually one of the neighbouring houses will come up for sale, even if that is not the place for you, you will be on the equestrian property ladder once you combine the two.

Russ Brown
 
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