Somerset farmer finally buys land rented for generations

You’ve rented a parcel of land for years, handing over money every month to keep hanging on to it, but knowing all that cash will never make it yours. But then suddenly, it’s up for sale. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to organise the finance to buy it – but in a way that let you keep control of your own savings?

That was the situation one beef farmer found herself in, when the Somerset grazing land their family had rented for generations suddenly came onto the market. But thanks to a smart phone call, she was able to find funding and complete the deal in just six weeks.

“We didn’t want to go to a bank – they can be a bit useless really, you can never get through to a real person and I didn’t feel they would understand our need for this type of loan. It wasn’t like a mortgage to buy a house. We needed someone who understood our business and truly got why it was important for us to buy the land.”

But then a fellow farmer recommended she call Rural Asset Finance, a specialist direct lender to Britain’s agricultural businesses. The company’s sales manager Ben Wood – who, like all the RAF team, comes from a farming background – immediately understood the couple’s vision.

Quick process

“From the very first contact, Ben was excellent,” she says. “He was friendly, helpful, always emailed or called back straightaway. It was great not only to speak to a real person, and the same person, but a person who I could tell genuinely understood farming.”

Rural Asset Finance says it understands that every farm and every situation is different, so the team make a point of getting to know the business so they can offer a solution that fits the individual farmer’s circumstance. Ben was able to offer a land mortgage for the 26-acre plot, securing the loan with the new land and another parcel the farmer already owned.

“We’re delighted that we were able to give the farmer the best deal and rate possible with the optimum land-to-value levels, while maintaining her own cash flow so she didn’t have to dip into any rainy-day money she might need to protect,” says Ben. 

“We structured a 15-year loan with fixed repayments for the first five years, and will review it after that initial period to see what works best for her. That could potentially alter the security on the loan and may even mean releasing some of it back to them. We know the ups and downs of farming life so we’re always aiming to be flexible with security so we can adjust things in the way that best suits our clients.”

But it wasn’t just the flexibility that impressed the farmer – but the speed of the deal. “We first called Ben in the late summer and didn’t really expect that we would actually take possession of the land until after Christmas,” she says. “But the whole thing went through in six weeks! They’ve got their own inhouse legal team, who were also really friendly and helpful – we hadn’t done a deal like this before so it was a bit daunting, but Andy Carrier in their legal department was brilliant at explaining everything and guiding us through it. I think Ben being able to work so closely with him within the same office really helped to speed things up for us.”

Rural Asset Finance doesn’t just fund land purchases but provides finance for everything farm-related – including vehicles, machinery, ag-tech and buildings for arable, livestock, diversification, renewable energy or anything else. 

For the company’s happy customer in the West Country, owning rather than renting that parcel of land is making her think about expanding their 200 head of cattle. “It’s great to know we own the land now,” she says. “It opens up a few different possibilities for the future – and it’s thanks to the people at Rural Asset Finance. I absolutely recommend them.”

For more information contact the team.

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