FOR those with a City bonus in the bank, the very latest property “must have”
– after the ski chalet and villa in Tuscany – is a farm. Let’s be clear:
this is not an acre of pasture and a few pedigree sheep – those are strictly
for hobby farmers. No, a farm has to mean a good chunk of green belt, in
easy commuting distance of London, with an impressive house to top it off.
The upmarket estate agent Knight Frank has 2,396 clients prepared to spend
more than £2 million on a farm of 100 acres or more; 358 of them have more
than £10 million available. They have no wish to make farming their
business: at best they want the farm to break even while they concentrate on
their jobs in the City. “These are lifestyle farmers,” says Claire Duthie,
head of farm sales at Knight Frank. “And they make up a growing part of the
farming community. About 40 per cent of farm buyers don’t expect the land to
provide an income. They want to enjoy country life and create a better
environment.”
But how easy is it for a City type to become a lifestyle farmer? One man well
placed to answer that is Ian Anderson: the 59-year-old frontman for the rock
band Jethro Tull lives in a £6 million 18th-century manor house in
Wiltshire, surrounded by 400 acres of farmland. He has led the life of a
country squire since buying his first farm in Buckinghamshire in 1975.
“It’s not easy,” he says in his comfortable, beamed sitting room. “I’ve known
people who have come to the countryside and returned to the city with their
tails between their legs. Incomers have to take advice. Pay for a land agent
and don’t try to change the farm overnight. If your farm is being managed,
or if there are agreements with neighbours, stick with them before trying
new ideas. And don’t imagine it’s possible to make money from a
smallish farm. If an experienced farmer with 500 acres and a cottage can’t
make a profit, a townie with 100 acres and a country pile has no chance. If
you can get the farm to ‘wash its own face’ – just tick over – you’re doing
well.”
Brought up in the Edinburgh suburbs, Anderson is a self-taught farmer,
expanding his Buckinghamshire estate from 98 to 800 acres in the 19 years he
owned it. He also invested in Scottish land, buying the Strathaird estate on
the Isle of Skye, where he set up a fish farm, at one time employing 400 in
his processing plant. In 1994 he sold Strathaird to the John Muir Trust for
£750,000. At the same time he sold the Buckinghamshire farm for £900,000,
before buying the Wiltshire estate for £2.2 million.
Now, like the leisure farmers who have followed him, his main interest is
conservation. “When we came here the farm was very run-down. It had been
contract-farmed and the land was full of weeds. I continued to contract-farm
it, but exerted more control. We planted 30,000 deciduous trees, because I
believe it’s our duty to reduce our carbon footprint. Others moving to the
countryside can do the same and it can make financial sense: a specialist
forestry adviser will know all about the grants.”
Anderson has good advice about less attractive aspects of rural life.
“Consider security,” he says. “You’re probably a lot safer living in a gated
development in Central London than in the country, where there are gangs
checking out large estates. I’ve had two very serious stalkers: one turned
up glaring through a window at Shona, my wife, in the middle of the night
when I was away. It’s a worry: my security devices cost over £100,000.
Footpaths can be an intrusion. In Buckinghamshire one went past our
drawing-room window . . . And can your partner hack the life? If you’re
going to London to work every day, it won’t be you who’ll have to deal with
problems. Shona has had to administer to a farm worker who’d cut off his
finger. But she’s a country girl. Can your wife do that?”
So what makes farming in Wiltshire more enjoyable than golf in the rock-star
belt of Surrey? “It’s the symbiotic relationship with the countryside around
you,” says Anderson. “There’s something fundamentally pleasurable about
driving a tractor and getting in the harvest. The graindryer’s roaring;
there’s dust in your throat; the job is done. Farming has given me a set of
very rich experiences like these.” Jethro Tull will play a short
acoustic tour in the UK during March and April
COUNTRY MUSIC
- Paul McCartney has owned several farms, including one next to his croft on
the Mull of Kintyre. In 1973 he was fined £100 for growing cannabis on the
land.
- Mick Hucknall owns a large vineyard on the slopes of Mount Etna, where the
acclaimed Etna Red is produced. It has been described by wine connoisseurs
as “a robust quality wine”.
- Alex James, the former guitarist with Blur, gave up the rock-star life to
become a farmer on 200 acres of land near Stow-on-the-Wold in the Cotswolds.
He produces his own cheese and co-presents On Your Farm on Radio 4.
FARMERS’ MARKET
- Record City bonuses are stoking the demand for farm properties, with those
in the Home Counties and the Cotswolds and those surrounded by picturesque
pasture commanding a premium. There are six potential buyers for each
property.
- The average price for farmland rose by 5 per cent in the last three months
of 2006 and now stands at £4,458 an acre, according to Knight Frank. In
research just released, Savills disclosed that prices are now greater than
at their mid1990s peak, when farm profitability was high.
- City types account for about half of farm buyers and know what they want: a
big house at the centre of plenty of land. Liam Bailey, the head of
residential research at Knight Frank, says: “They need to know that their
privacy is protected. They don’t want to be in one corner of their land,
close to any neighbours.”
- Overseas buyers are increasingly interested in UK farms. Savills says 20 per
cent of buyers were from abroad last year.
- Farms are losing the image of being a financial drain. Buyers can “roll up”
capital gains made elsewhere and plough them into agricultural land. This
means that if you sell ten acres of farmland for £10 million for housing
development, you could buy a 500-acre farm without having to pay 40 per cent
in capital gains tax.
- Increasing numbers of these “hobby farmers” are letting land to neighbouring
farmers for their livestock, or are renting out farm buildings to small
businesses, especially internet-based companies.
- Another big money spinner is the car-boot sale (although you need planning
permission). “If you’ve got 100 cars at £7 each, that’s a pretty tidy profit
for a Sunday morning,” says Bailey.
- Richard Brooks, of Lane Fox, points out that if you buy a farm you are
entitled to 100 per cent relief against inheritance tax after two years.
“It’s got to be a working farm, though,” he says. “There are longstanding
benefits because you can offset the running costs against tax.”
MARY GOLD
www.knightfrank.com www.lanefox.co.uk For more tips on reducing tax, visit
timesonline.co.uk/money
