Should I buy a 2 1/2 acre paddock?

[Boredbumhead]

It is 26k. It has no planning or anything and I would have to add it my mortgage....
My heart says buy it but would I be making a bad financial judgement? It's Infront of our house, but not adjoining. You would have to leave the house and walk down the road for 2 mins....

What can I do with a two acre paddock?

If you made it into woodland you might make a profit too. Look at prices for your local area here www.woodlands.co.uk/

I love this ideal @limpingparrot!

Bit morbid but... Woodland cemetery? We buried my Nan's ashes & planted a tree in one in Essex. They also do burials.

Oh that's so lovely @limpingparrot!

You will heed to have sufficient equity in your house. You won't get a mortgage for a paddock and they won't take the value of it into account.

Yes the house has been valued and there is enough equity in it so that is ok. It will add to the mortgage payments by about 100 pounds a month though!

A dog walking field is a good idea - you'll need insurance and set rules but they're extremely popular. As a dog walker, I really, really wish I had one somewhere nearby!

Only thing is we are a bit out on a limb so I don't know how many people would come and walk dogs

@tabulahrasa

valaisblacknosesheepcheshire.co.uk/

I actually have no clue what’s involved in looking after them, or in fact if that’s a big enough field... but look at them

They are amazing!

Omg those sheep are the cutest! Don't know if I could use them for meat though! More like pets!!

As the owner of a similar sized paddock in a similar situation I would say that they need more maintenance than you might imagine, and therefore need to pay someone to do it, or have the time and equipment to do it yourself. We have horses, so that adds to the expense of the land, but as we’re on a footpath we have liability insurance, we have to have the hedges done once or twice a year ( around £250 to £300 a time) and would have to pay to sort and top the grass if we didn’t have horses eating it. I’d say at £100 a month for the term of the mortgage, if you don’t know what you want it for then it’s probably not a great idea.

Also, if any ragwort- it is a LOT of time and effort to get rid of it! You can’t just leave it either.

I would! We bought a field near us and not long afterwards there was a call for sites asking for people to sell land for housing. No way would we want houses in front of us so it was a good call!

I would plant trees and have it either as an orchard or as woodland. I think it's a wonderful opportunity and that you should definitely go for it.

Would it be possible for any local falconers to use?

I'm in Wales. I wonder if I could use this scheme or if I would need to be a charity or an organisation?

www.keepwalestidy.cymru/news/exciting-new-initiative-to-boost-nature-on-your-doorstep

If you don't have horses, I would securely fence it and rent it out to dog owners. You won't make money having other people's horses on it.

God yes. I’d be all over this like a shot. An orchard, some chickens, a vegetable garden. It sounds perfect :)

www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/local-places-nature-guidance

Perhaps this too?

We bought a 2 acre field, now fenced into two paddocks, many years ago. It almost adjoins the house but not quite. It cost us £30K and was just bare farmland. We seeded it with equine specific grass, with a herbal ley on top and it's now lovely. We also ran water into it so that we could have an automatic water trough in between both paddocks. We've raised pigs for meat, lambs for meat and had ponies and sheep on there as pets. We only have two fairly elderly ewes on there at the moment that we've had since lambs and they're nowhere near able to keep on top of the grass.
Sheep are a pain in the arse to keep - they require a lot of care to keep them in good health, and their primary aim in life is to die as soon as possible so it's a fairly relentless task! Ours are very lovely though and more like pet dogs than sheep!
Horses will trash the ground but with careful maintenance it can be done - particularly ponies as they usually need their grazing restricted in the spring and autumn in order to prevent laminitis when the grass sugar levels are at their highest.
Pigs are great - very low maintenance and yummy returns - but they do completely trash the ground!
If you are keeping any sort of livestock then you'll need to get a CPH number and flock/herd number from Defra (or whatever they're called at the moment!).
We're now growing a load of trees in our lower paddock and have plans to build a bird hide/shepherds hut type thing with some chairs/gas stove/blankets etc within those trees so that we can go down there and have some relaxing family time together.

I'd buy it.
Here's a consideration for part of it: dogwalkingfields.com

That's a very expensive 2.5 acre paddock.

If it's been used as agricultural land before you may need to look at change of use even to turn it into a veg patch.

Dog field, camping/glamping etc will need planning permission if doing it for more than 28 days a year

You need a CPH number before you can keep sheep/pigs/goats etc on it and register any movements of animals on and off with trading standards.

If you don't keep animals on it then unless you are wanting it to turn to scrub it will need to be mown or topped at least once a year. It can be difficult to find people to do this for a small parcel of land.

Does it have a natural water supply?

@Boredbumhead

Omg those sheep are the cutest! Don't know if I could use them for meat though! More like pets!!

Oh I want them as pets... and I suppose they’ll need shearing, so wool, lol

Yes, would buy it.

As someone famously said “they aren’t making land any more”!
And plots always goes up in value over time.

Maybe check out the local ground conditions on the plot first - i.e will it have old industrial stuff or liabilities underneath the ground level? - in which case negotiate to pay less for it. (concrete foundations, asbestos, drains, services)

Any covenants on the land?...e.g. no permission to excavate if drainage systems below ground?

What is on adjoining land? - is it residential or commercial?

Neighbour offered to sell me a significant chunk of his garden when he was moving house - so I get enjoyment of the land use now, and increase in land value when I sell later (Nursing home fees? 😂)
....and 4 adjoining neighbours have since shown their hands, they all are interested in buying from me...

Land also comes with responsibilities for maintenance though
(I witnessed a the sale of a plot of land elsewhere - the buyer was probably chuffed to own a new slice of land - but didn’t realise they had “paid” for the privilege of being responsible for ongoing maintenance of a listed wall at £££)

Can you identify who else might want to buy the land from you - adjoining neighbours? - to add to their gardens perhaps, at a future date?

Profit of land sale later is most likely subject to CGT...

Does it have dropped kerbs? (For permissible access)

Thank you for these really helpful thoughts and suggestions! So ianbu! I know the land is a bit expensive, but apparently that is the price around here? 🤷