Hello - Hoping to relocate to Highlands

[Lois]

Hi everyone

 

Very early days in our journey. No exact location decided on yet but like the idea of central and East coast areas of Sutherland.

 

Still having the build or renovate discussion. 

 

Currently in Oxfordshire so viewing potential sites and properties pretty tricky.

 

Looking forward to exploring the hub and getting to know some of you.

 

 

[Cpd]

Hay there and welcome from the west coast of Argyll remember the saying - west is best ! You should be able to make your money work for you if you have a house to sell down south. 

[ProDave]

Hi and welcome @Lois  We too relocated from South Oxfordshire to the Highlands in 2003 and now building our second self build.  Our target area was "half an hour from Inverness" and we ended up on the northern limit of that.

 

Sutherland is very nice but not much employment so I assume you are self employed or retired?  Several cheap plots around Lairg / Rogart area at the moment. or even cheaper if you want to go further north to Helmsdale.

[scottishjohn]

43 minutes ago, Lois said:

Currently in Oxfordshire so viewing potential sites and properties pretty tricky.

 

Looking forward to exploring the hub and getting to know some of you.

that would apply to most parts of scotland  i think

plenty of other parts of scotland that are very nice and uncrowded without being too far from civilisation  as you know it 

[Lois]

Thank you all for the welcome.

 

@ProDave Would be interested in how you went about your relocation. Did you move up and then find your land or did you manage to find something whilst still in South Oxfordshire? We have seen a few plots advertised in the area but are trying to find at least an acre and there don't seem to be many of those around. 

 

Other half is a self-employed electrician so a handy chap. We assume there could be business potential but need to do some more research.

[ProDave]

I'm a self employed electrician as well.

 

We started our search in 2002.  We came up for 2 weeks holiday in our caravan.  At that point we did not know we would be buying a plot, we came up with an open mind.  But given the big difference in the way you buy and sell between England and Scotland, we wanted to buy something we could afford before the old house sold.

 

In that visit, we ended up buying a 1 bedroom flat in Inverness.  That was always destined to be a buy to let.  A few weeks later we were back, staying in the flat and getting it ready for rental.  That was the point we decided on a self build, so we looked at all the plots on the market at that time and the one we bought was the flattest, largest and strangely the cheapest, so we bought it.

 

The purchase of the plot completed in late 2002 so we came back with the touring caravan and stayed on the plot and started planning the build.  We were back in March 2003 to get services onto the plot.  On the journey back down, I heard on the radio that Gulf War 2 had started. That killled the housing market and we did not have a single viewing of the old house for 6 months.

 

At the same time the company I worked for was running out of orders so I voluntered for redundancy.

 

It was late 2003 by the time we finally had a buyer so we moved up into the static caravan and building started in 2004

 

Go here https://www.hspc.co.uk/  and put "plot Sutherland" into the search box and you will see what's available.

 

 

[Lois]

Thanks @prodave (off to check out your build blog...)

[Thedreamer]

@Lois welcome to the forum. 

 

 

We are at second fix on our croft house on the Isle of Skye.

 

Lots of options available in the Highlands and else where in Scotland. 

[Crofter]

Welcome aboard. Another Sgianach here. Having spent most of my school years in East Sutherland before moving west as an adult, I couldn't imagine going back- but maybe that's just me!

 

For anybody self building in the Highlands, get used to the tedium of choosing suppliers based on their delivery fees. For those of us outside of easy reach of Inverness, monthly road trips become a fact of life. It's amazing the quantity of building supplies you can fit into a car...

[Stewpot]

I'm currently in Berkshire, and in the process of buying a plot in Scotland.

 

I wasn't looking specifically in Scotland, but because it wasn't possible to visit a plot there and back in a day, I found a handful of likely plots on Rightmove and Zoopla. I did do extensive internet research on them all, and had eliminated many others. I checked with the estate agents to confirm they were still available, and then booked the smallest, cheapest self-catering place I could find that was convenient for them all, and spent a few days looking around. I photographed everything lots, spoke to locals, and tried to gain as much information about each plot and the area as possible.

 

I made a return visit when my offer on one of the plots was accepted. Contrary to popular belief, in Scotland, you have not, at that stage, entered in to a contract, so I could have another long hard look at the plot before I made the commitment. I also visited a local solicitor (you have to use a Scottish solicitor for transactions in Scotland) to make sure I understood what I was getting myself into.

 

And that's as far as I've got - quite what it is that solicitors find to do in the intervening time (two and a half months, so far), I've no idea, but hopefully, any day now, the plot will finally be mine.

Good luck with your search. To put things in perspective, I looked at a plot locally to me - just one; I didn't trouble looking at any others - the local asking price of building land per square meter is 24 times what I am paying in Scotland. I'm getting a bigger plot for a fraction of the price, but I was quite bullish with my offer.

[Lois]

Thanks @thedreamer, @crofter and @stewpot for your encouraging words. Inspired to get things moving on.