In saying that, it is possible to earn a little money on the side by selling things like eggs and vegetables at the market. If the bank identifies that you may be using the hobby farm as your sole source of income, you’ll need to apply for a commercial loan instead and go through another credit department with stricter lending requirements. It’s the reason why land that is upwards of 100 hectares or more may not be considered for a hobby farm loan.

Strictly speaking, hobby farms are not for the purposes of turning a profit. Most hobby farms can be anywhere between 10 to 100 hectares, with the block itself usually consisting of a property for you and your family to live in and a lot of land acreage to do with whatever you want as long as it meets council building codes and you’re not breaking the law.įor example, you could have a cow, a pet horse for riding, a few chickens and some vegetables to live a pretty sustainable lifestyle. That being said, there can be plenty of hard work involved. The main reason that people buy a hobby farm is less about raising livestock and working the land, and more about lifestyle. With recent estimates putting the number of “small lifestyle block” currently operating at well over 60,000, it’s a growing national passion worth considering no matter what stage of life you’re at. Hobby farms, or lifestyle blocks, are generally considered by banks to be non-income-earning rural properties, but that’s where this vanilla definition ends.Įvery hobby farm is different depending on what crops you’re planning on growing, the animals you’re looking to raise and, ultimately, the work you’re willing to put into it.

Hobby farm finance