Help and advice wanted in obtaining finance

Hi there,
I know that this is not really an investment property question but we will be grateful of any help/advice that can be given to us.

My partner & I have a dream of buying a block of land in the country and starting our own B&B. We would build some sort of a kit house for ourselves to live in and also build a few little cabins for guests to stay in.

We recently found the perfect block of land to put it all on, The block is located near Gympie (which is about 2 hours north of Brisbane), has excellent views and is located close to the Bruce Highway. However, we are unsure of how to go about obtaining finance for it all. The main problem is that we don’t have much of a deposit but we do have the ability to pay a few hundred dollars each week towards it (our combined total income is around $40,000).

Without getting too much into the finance details at the moment we would ideally need about $250,000 to do everything all at once. The cabins will be fairly small inside but we would make them very cosy. We would also use recycled materials where ever possible (windows, doors etc.) and shop around for the cheapest price possible on everything for fitting them out. We would also look at using things like self-composting toilets as they would probably work out cheaper than putting in septic tanks.

A rough breakdown of the costs is as follows:

Cost of the land: $120,000
Cost of a small kit home for ourselves: $40,000
Cost of three small cabins $60,000
Leaving $30,000 for plumbing (we do know a plumber who could do it fairly cheap for us), electrical work, rain water tanks etc.

I do realise that some of the costs may blow out but we could forego a house for ourselves at the moment and just concentrate on getting the cabins built and getting an incoming coming in from them, then build a place for ourselves at a later time. After all, it is not just a home that we would be building; we would also be building an income.

If anyone knows of the best way that we could go about obtaining the finance for all of this, or if you know of any mortgage brokers/banks who may be able to help us, or even if you know of any decent builders, electricians who do a good job and charge fair prices, please get back to us.

Cheers,
Grant
 
Hi Grant there is no mention of a deposit that I noticed? lenders will lend on the land value possibly up to a 95% loan depending on the post code as remote areas can attract even a lesser lend.

Unless there was a fixed price contract and completed buildings with services and all connected, including the doors and windows etc I think you would find most would be reluctant to lend money on such a deal
 
Lenders make a distinction between owner builders and a fixed price contract from a building company. Usually they will lend up to 100% of a fixed price building contract and 100% of the land value. They will only lend up to around 50-70% of the price of an owner built property. I surmise the reason for this is they think owner builders are more risky, and their quotes can be underestimated.
If this is what you would like to do (I am not making a judgement as to the financial merits of a B&B), I suggest purchasing the block first with an 80% mortgage and raising the other 20% from another source. This may involve negotiating with the vendor, borrowing off family and friends, or perhaps a personal loan. Once yo have the block I would look into the cost of kits homes as opposed to project homes. Perhaps you could find a builder to build your home and get 100% finance. You could then possible add the kit homes on yourself afterwards. the kit home seller may also have a finance arm that specialises in kit home finance.
 
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