Barn conversions have been popular for a while and there are some spectacular examples in existence. If you’ve dreamt of buying an old barn, converting and creating your very own unique home, it’s still possible to find properties in the UK ripe for conversion at prices that won’t break the bank.

Unless you have very specific ideas in mind for what you’d like to do with a barn, it’s helpful to look out for properties that are being sold with planning permission already in place. This means the existing owner has done some of the hard work already and gone through the planning permission process, which may save a bit of time for you. Details of the planning permission and plans are available for prospective buyers, so you can check out exactly what has been approved.

If having planning permission already sorted out isn’t a concern to you, or you want to handle the complete project from the very start to the finish, then there are some advantages to be had. The biggest is that, without planning permission, the price of some barns may be slightly cheaper (approximately 10% – 20% less) than they would where permission has been granted.

The price of barns inevitably varies, depending on factors such as the size of the barn, its access, whether it has additional land available and its location. As many have already been bought up and converted, it’s helpful not to be too prescriptive with your requirements, especially regarding location.

As an example of the types of barn that can be found on the market today, in the leafy Devon countryside at Morchard Bishop, there’s a Grade II listed cob barn. It comes complete with planning permission already in place for it to become a two-bedroom, two-storey house. With the price listed as being at “offers in excess of £79,950”, it’s a good illustration that buying the shell of your future home needn’t necessarily be expensive.

To find more examples of barns up for sale, add your desired location and the keyword, ‘barn’ into the Primelocation.com property search.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Home improvement, buying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.