Moving business to Farm or outbuildings. IFA needed?
Discussion
I am thinking about buying a Farm or similar, whereby we could live on site and use the outbuildings as warehousing for the goods we sell.
Does anyone have any experience with Farmland or similar. I have no idea where to start looking for the right property?
I will also probably need the assistance of a good commercial IFA to help work out what funds I am capable of using for this venture.
Does anyone have any experience with Farmland or similar. I have no idea where to start looking for the right property?
I will also probably need the assistance of a good commercial IFA to help work out what funds I am capable of using for this venture.
Thanks guys, I am not looking for lots of land as I will not be growing anything or keeping animals, I am only interested in a house/warehouse (or the ability to build, I need at least 10,000sq ft of storage). Ideally located between J10 - J14 somewhere along the M1 for easy access...
I bought two 'farm' buildings and have converted one into very nice offices. They are not attached to my property but were attached to another during their life before being split and sold on.
They were both classed originally as outbuilding with an agricultural restriction and as far as I'm aware it was simply planning consent through the local authority with new plans to change to full B1 use. However when I bought them I had to spend a fair amount on the main one to bring it up to scratch and as yet have not got round to re-furbishing the smaller of the two buildings. They are small by the standards you are looking at (just under 4000sq ft in total but the principle is the same I assume on larger property). Whilst I understand the council's are encouraging change of use to B1, also be aware that the business rates are changing from April this year. In simple terms a commercial building regardless of its state is eligible to pay full rates as normal, whereas previously if a commercial building was empty you paid no rates. This is still not the case if the building has a full rateable value of under £2000 per annum, so don't look to buy large buildings you may not use otherwise you'll have an unexpected bill!
One of the pitfalls to be aware of with this type of change of use is the local authority can allow B1 use, but only for your business which can obviously make life difficult if for example you decide to sell the site at a later date or simply live on site and rent the commercial buildings out to another company should you decide to.
You are best to have a good look around, there are plenty of sites available and it's just a matter of finding the right one. I used a couple of commercial estate agents, but 4 years ago buildings the size I wanted were rare to say the least!
A good friend of mine has just spent just under 2 million on a large farm house with two outbuildings totalling somewhere around 12000sq ft in Essex. He intends to spend a further £500,000+ improving the larger of the two units for use as a factory/offices so they don't come cheap! The benefit is he has gone through everything you are looking at and is about to see light at the end of the tunnel so it can be done! It has to be said though in my opinion that that type of property has a limited appeal and you have to be careful jumping in and then finding you have a white elephant.
They were both classed originally as outbuilding with an agricultural restriction and as far as I'm aware it was simply planning consent through the local authority with new plans to change to full B1 use. However when I bought them I had to spend a fair amount on the main one to bring it up to scratch and as yet have not got round to re-furbishing the smaller of the two buildings. They are small by the standards you are looking at (just under 4000sq ft in total but the principle is the same I assume on larger property). Whilst I understand the council's are encouraging change of use to B1, also be aware that the business rates are changing from April this year. In simple terms a commercial building regardless of its state is eligible to pay full rates as normal, whereas previously if a commercial building was empty you paid no rates. This is still not the case if the building has a full rateable value of under £2000 per annum, so don't look to buy large buildings you may not use otherwise you'll have an unexpected bill!
One of the pitfalls to be aware of with this type of change of use is the local authority can allow B1 use, but only for your business which can obviously make life difficult if for example you decide to sell the site at a later date or simply live on site and rent the commercial buildings out to another company should you decide to.
You are best to have a good look around, there are plenty of sites available and it's just a matter of finding the right one. I used a couple of commercial estate agents, but 4 years ago buildings the size I wanted were rare to say the least!
A good friend of mine has just spent just under 2 million on a large farm house with two outbuildings totalling somewhere around 12000sq ft in Essex. He intends to spend a further £500,000+ improving the larger of the two units for use as a factory/offices so they don't come cheap! The benefit is he has gone through everything you are looking at and is about to see light at the end of the tunnel so it can be done! It has to be said though in my opinion that that type of property has a limited appeal and you have to be careful jumping in and then finding you have a white elephant.
Edited by mogul on Tuesday 25th March 21:20
I work for an independent commercial mortgage specialist that regularly arranges finance for farms. Feel free to PM me for any advice.
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