Are you a tenant farmer hoping to take the next step and become a landowner? Are you looking to funding to be able to exercise your Tenant’s Right to Buy?

Here at UK Agricultural Finance, our core focus is adding value to our agricultural clients. We understand the pressures faced in the industry and obtaining finance is not always straight forward. However, we are here to help.

Right to Buy in Scotland

If you are based in Scotland then you benefit from the pre-emptive right to buy legislation. Through the 2003 Act, tenant farmers have a pre-emptive right to buy their agricultural holding if their landlord decides to sell. If you want to take this opportunity, you must first register that right through an application to Registers of Scotland’s Register of Community Interests in Land, who maintain a register of tenant farmers who have recorded their interest in buying the agricultural or farm land that they rent.

In Scotland, the pre-emptive right to buy legislation offers additional opportunities for tenant farmers who have secure 1991 Act tenancies to buy their agricultural holding if it becomes available on the ‘sale’ market. This is often also available at a lower price than the open market.

Although our head offices are based in England, we are able to offer loans for England, Wales or Scotland. Regardless of your location we always provide our borrowers with an on-farm visit from our team to help support you through the process.

Right to Buy in the rest of the UK

However, if your farm is located elsewhere in the UK then here is no statutory right for tenants to buy their farm. However, it is not uncommon for landowners to offer tenants the option to buy their farm at a slightly reduced rate for a quick sale. With the current concerns over the changes to agricultural policy in the UK some landlords are seeking to sell their farms, and buying your tenancy can be a sound business move.

Securing funds

In the case of Tenant’s Right to Buy the offer of a more favourable price is often subject to an efficient sale process. As such we understand that when it comes to sourcing funds for right to buy, the process needs to be straightforward, clear and efficient. We are here to work with you so you can focus on your day-to-day working activities and our dedicated team will be able to get the process moving with obtaining the finance needed.

Additionally, we may be able to help with a loan based on the open market value of your land, rather than the actual discounted purchase price.

Many conventional lenders assess their loan on the lower of the discounted purchase price and the open market value, making raising sufficient capital difficult. Our loan could allow you to buy your land and then apply to a conventional lender for a cheaper refinancing, once the six or twelve months have passed that they typically require before using the land’s open market value to assess the loan.

Would you like to find out more about how we can help with tenancy right to buy finance or finance for other agricultural assistance?

If so, then please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can call our team on 01732 252 399 and we look forward to speaking with you soon. If you prefer, you can send us a message via our online enquiry form and once received, we will be in touch with you.