Buying land... Where to look?

Thirty years ago my place I was told was the last sub 100 acre block to be permitted in our valley, it was a fluke because the zoning was historically rural / residential due to the fact it was a remote village with timber workers cottages and immediately surrounded by thousands of acres of State Forest. These "weird / off grid" places are what you want to seek out (with due diligence)!

I found my first farm by accident. I knew a Senior foreman at AIS who's Brother in law owned a property at Yellow rock and his Landrover was playing up (wouldn't start). As I was the Landrover guy, I went down one afternoon and found the issue (a shorted condenser), and took it for a test drive up the road. The property above looked very nice, some steep land, but well timbered and with several small building spots. I asked if it was for sale and Roger said it was, but not on the market, just by word of mouth. So I made an offer to the chap concerned, ($55K in 1983 for 40 acres, 16 HA without building permission). I then started to look around for a partner, as I couldn't borrow that much money from the Credit Union. Found a chap, and we bought it together, as tenants in common. The property was quite unique in that there was a municipal boundary between Kiama and Shellharbour dividing it into 2 unequal parts. Fast forward 10 years and Id almost paid my part off, but he was starting to get silly and not wanting to adhere to our agreement as to the parts of the land we would use, saying my 1/2 was worth more than his, and of course it was as I has the water, fencing, etc. Anyway, a idea started to form that just perhaps its was possible to subdivide. The road also had the effect of dividing the property into 2 pieces as well, and by now it had been re-gazetted as a public road. I engaged a very good surveyor/solicitor combination and by submitting a subdivision along the road, ended up with a split, but the municipal boundary still existed, and at one stage the property was in 4 sections. A reconciliation was then done, swapping shares in various portions and I finally had my land, albeit only 17 acres, still with no building permission, along the Municipal boundary. Luckily, boundaries, roads and the like are not set by Councils, so even though I really pissed them off, they were gracious enough to realize that it was going to happen and they could make it difficult but not stop it. Now for round two, building permission.

In rural NSW, there used to be a guideline in relation to subdivisions that if the land was not suitable for large scale farming, it may be subdivided. A good law to stop viable farming land being broken up, but totally inapplicable in my situation as the land really was mostly cliff face apart from a few small openings scattered throughout it. Anyway, a long grind through the Land Titles office, Land and Environment court etc, numerous survey's and lots $ later, I had building permission. It is possible to get it.

There was even enough water from the creek to run a 1 KW induction hydro electric turbine for power.

Worth it ? NO, the stress levels were off the scale some times, but we did sell for a good profit and managed to buy up here without encumbrance.

When we determined that Yellow Rock was not for us any more, we started looking around at various areas to move to. It took several years of holidays, weekends away and so on, but we finally settled here in the Northern Rivers, some 1,000 Km away from where we were.

There really is no other way than looking from ground level. You need to experience the land, people and environment to determine if the area is for you. Once you decided, a note in the local Pub, Rural store, Shop and asking around may reveal a property that wasn't listed but is for sale, like mine was. That place is probably worth multi millions today, but being zapped with the RF from the TV transmitters, phone services etc above you cant be healthy.

Eventually you will look back and wonder how the holes all lined up and you have your property. Keep at it and it will happen.







Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out.

Stealth, check out Exempt Development guidelines for your State. In NSW you can put a shed up without development approval so long as it is under the size guidelines for the size block it is on. For example, on my 3 acre coastal block I can (and do) have a shed no larger than 50 square metres. No council approval required.

Have you thought of buying a bigger block(20Hec) with a few (2-3) like minded people, of course it would need to have building zoning, but that's a way to get round finances, if you all put in, you could get something bigger,have extra hands around for building. You could even interview people for certain skills you might need. Someone with engineering qual's,someone with medical/science background etc... you get the idea.

I'm sure there's plenty of people (who have $$ to put in) wanting to live in a community of like minded & prepared individuals.

I'd look in victoria, far enough inland that rising seas won't reach, where climate will be cooler, compared to Northern areas. With a creek for water, up high as long as its not a future active mountain.

So much to consider, but make sure you have an odd number of people/families for decision making.

Just an idea.