# finance for buying a field



## zulu705 (13 November 2008)

Those of you that have bought fields to keep your horses in how did you finance it?

Savings
Unsecured loan
Mortgage - can you have  mortgage on a field and a house at the same time? and who does mortgages for fields!?


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## Sali (13 November 2008)

I find the idea of having a mortgage for a field somewhat amusing. The idea just seems bizare(sp?)


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## MrsMozart (13 November 2008)

Depends on the size and cost and whether you doing it just for you or planning on having liveries.

We put a bid in for a huge amount of land and twenty-odd stable at the begining of the year (was outbid by the Coal Authority, but hey ho). You can extend the mortgage on your house, depending on what circ.s. You can get a mortgage on a field. You can get a commercial loan. I still get notices that I can still borrow money despite the current economic climate.


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## zulu705 (13 November 2008)

Its just for my horse(s) so no livery or anything, probably need to borrow 20-30K, so commercial loan probably out cause its not commercial and for a relatively small amount.
Do high street banks do field mortgages then? or only rural/agriculture finance do them?


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## LCobby (13 November 2008)

High Street banks do personal loans of that type of amount, although over a much much shorter period than a mortgage.

Alhtouhg much lower monthly cost to add the 20-30K on to exisitng\house mortgage, if you have a fair amount for equity and don't mind any worries about securing it on your house.

Also bear in mind cost of legal fees, fencing, stable or shelter,laying on water, electricity, planing permission etc.
You must be in a low cost area of the country or have a good deposit though, to get any size of paddock for that sort of price?


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## treacle86 (14 November 2008)

With current financial climate I have heard good things about this site called zopa, its a money lending site , people to people , Its like an ebay style thing, Not a bank , quite difficult to explain but anyone thinking of bank loans etc , check this out see if it can help you x


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## scotsmare (14 November 2008)

Bear in mind that if you try to finance the field you're likely to only get 50% finance for it as it's bare land.


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## NeilM (14 November 2008)

When my OH bought her field, she searched around the net for the best unsecured loan, and financed it over five years.

There is still money available and with interest rates dropping, now is a good time to be borrowing.


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## custard (14 November 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
Mortgage - can you have  mortgage on a field and a house at the same time? and who does mortgages for fields!? 

[/ QUOTE ]

You can't actually mortgage land believe it or not, strange but true.

However, we only had a relatively small mortgage outstanding on our house so when we found some land went and saw the building society to see what they could do.

They offered us an 'any purpose loan' so long as it was secured against the house.  We were able to fix the rate and tie it in with the time remaining on the mortgage, the extra payments being little less than livery for two so it made sense to do it as the land was an investment.

Worth a try if you have a house with some equity in it and much better than an extension, conservatory, holiday home etc!


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## Darkly_Dreaming_Dex (14 November 2008)

Same as Custardsmum- we tried everywhere for a loan for the field but no-one was interested even though we had half the money in cash so ended up extending the mortgage on the house as it was easier and cheaper than other methods.


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## MrsMozart (14 November 2008)

Trying to remember what our breakdown was. There was about twenty k on the mortgage, and the rest was mortgage and loan - it was an existing building though. As others have said remember the costs! If you have someone arrange the finances, even if you don't take it up you will have to pay a fee. If you have the equity in your house, talk to your mortgage company first as it's definately the cheapest way of raising money that I know of.


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## Passtheshampoo (14 November 2008)

We added ours on to house mortgage as we couldn't find a lender for a field purchase ( not at a decent rate) . Think most secured loans are up to £25k, certainly the ones where info drops through your door.  Remember to take into account cost of fencing it etc, it's not cheap!


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## now_loves_mares (14 November 2008)

"talk to your mortgage company first as it's definately the cheapest way of raising money that I know of."

Not sure I necessarily agree with that. If you are adding £20k on to your mortgage over, say, 20 years or whatever the remaining period is, you will pay way more in total payments. You would need to do your sums, but if you can afford to pay more per month, you are probably cheaper on an unsecured loan. Depends of course on the differential between the rates. At the moment I wouldn't personally be eating up the equity in my house. You never know what's around the corner, and if you were forced to sell your home in the current climate of falling prices, this could be rather costly


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## LCobby (15 November 2008)

Depends- if your extra is flexible, you could pay it off as quyickly as  you would a personal loan, but at a much lower interest rate, does not have to be 20 or 25 years.

Don't expect any bank to lend anywhere near to a full property current value, eg if your house is  worth several times its original purchase price or current mortgage.


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## LankyDoodle (15 November 2008)

We are in a similar situation as we want to add stables and a manege to in laws' land (currently on DIY with 2).  

By my reckoning, we will need about 3k to convert a building to stables and one to feed/tack room, money for fencing/gates/locks etc, hardcore for walkway areas, school which we intend to do ourselves with help from friend (who does this kinda thing), some other bits and bobs. I reckon the school could cost about 12k all-in, so we are talking anything from 20-30k.

I have just put some figures into moneysupermarket.co.uk and to borrow 30k over 5 years, it will be £600 a month.  That is more than my 80k mortgage per month, but is over 20 less years!  I will be paying back 36k, so am 6k out of pocket in the long-run. We do have an alternative of borrowing the money from the in-laws and paying back interest free; if we did this over 5 years then it would cost 500 a month - I don't actually think there is a great deal of difference.  If we add 30k to the mortgage, it is an extra £240 a month for the remaining time of the mortgage (24 years, 11 months) which works out as £71760 and means we are out of pocket by more than 40k.

Hmmm, if only unsecured loans weren't so risky and the bank would give us one because I know what I'd choose looking at those figures, whatever the interest rates are!!!


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