Smallholding Finance In The UK

Buying a smallholding can mean the start of a whole lifestyle change. 

Making sure you have the correct finance on the property with the right lender for you can help secure it quickly and help you benefit from competitive interest rates long term.

A smallholding is a residential site that has more land than garden area, but is not a commercial farm.

Often the land will be used for a mixture of crop growing, livestock and woodland, grassland.

This can be for the benefit of yourself, or you may find you have a surplus that can be sold on.

How Much Can I Borrow On A Smallholding Mortgage?

We can secure finance of up to 95% against smallholdings if you have an outside income source to support the mortgage.

This can also be on market-leading high street rates.

Our acreage page details some of the lending criteria regarding properties with more than a garden.

The size of the acreage and location of the property can determine which lenders we approach.

The use of the smallholding is important to clarify right at the start of our journey.

Subsistence farming, a few livestock for grazing and some equestrian use is pretty standard.

If the property is to be used more intensively such as calf rearing & dairy farming we may need to look at slightly more specialist lenders as this is deemed to be a more commercial use of the property.

Often our clients may be purchasing a smallholding which they will gradually increase production on.

One client may be retaining their job in order to cover the cost of the finance and the other may be looking to subsistence farm the land.

Grown-up children or parents may also be involved.  Sometimes the property may have more than one residence on the title allowing a few generations to live at the property together.

We can secure standard residential finance on this type of scenario at market leading rates.

What Types Of Property Can Be Purchased With A Smallholding Mortgage?

Diversification – we have arranged residential finance on smallholdings which also have an element of commercial use to them.   This includes:

  • Holiday let
  • Airbnb
  • Cattery
  • Kennel
  • Rental property
  • Campsite
  • Glamping
  • Vineyard

As each property and each scenario is different we provide bespoke advice and service for every enquiry.

  1. Get in contact.  Have a quick ten minute chat with a Fox Davidson adviser.  They should be able to give you some initial thoughts and ideas.
  2. Our adviser will come back to you within 24 hours with an outline of some initial terms and a way forward.  They will also at this stage let you know the likely paperwork required to move this forward with a lender.
  3. If you are happy with this we can meet up or have another phone call to fun through your details a little further.  We will also collect your paperwork from you.  This gives us the information we need to give you a more formal recommendation.
  4. We will provide you with a formal recommendation and if you are happy with this we will submit the application for underwriting and the valuation to be instructed.