Eco-Home for Sale

Eco-Mobile-Home For Sale

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We are selling our warm and beautiful Eco MobileHome, situated in The Park, in a private location, at the heart of Pineridge in the Findhorn Community, Scotland.

Asking Price £175,000 ONO

We are happy to consider a house swap (you buy ours we buy yours at the same time)

Designed to our own specification this two bedroom Eco (Mobile) house is immaculately presented. Completed in 2010. Lovingly built to high eco build standards using primarily local and eco materials.

Originally designed to meet our needs as a small family, and also as a space for us to hold workshops and community gatherings, The Shire is contemporary, functional and homely. With special attention to detail and loving use of natural and raw materials. This is a labor of love and a very beautiful home.

Key features:

  • Octagonal living space
  • En-Suit Master Bedroom
  • Wooden Bath & separate shower
  • Study/Office
  • Child/Guest Bedroom
  • Utility room/Toilet
  • Double Glazed
  • Fireplace
  • Solid Oak Kitchen

Full description:

The property is less than one mile from the harbour and beaches of Findhorn Bay, four miles from Forres and twenty four miles from Inverness Airport. Nestled in the heart of the Findhorn eco community amongst the trees and wildlife.

This property will appeal to anyone wishing to live in an environmentally friendly home within the Findhorn Foundation. Particularly suitable for a single or a couple/small family.

The outside comprises Scottish Spruce, internal wall partitions are filled with sheep wool, windows double-glazed with excellent UV value.

Carpeted living room. Solid oak floors in all other rooms. Wood burning stove with back boiler. Majority of doors are sliding-doors to maximize use of space.

The rooms compromise of:

  • Pine front Deck: solid oak post box, outdoor sockets
  • Entrance hall: solid Oak flooring, built in bench, coat hangers, round window
  • Utility Room: sink, toilet, Eco-washing machine, mini tumble dryer, ,storage, hot water tank + electric backup
  • Living room: Spacious pine paneled octagonal room, carpet – suitable for small groups/workshop space. Unique cream color wood burning stove with back boiler, round window, skylight, built-in shelving, home cinema system which includes DVD/Blu-ray online Player, Projector, Surround sound system wired into the walls
  • Solid Oak kitchen: gas-hob, electric cooker, Smeg fridge, phone socket
  • Master Bedroom: Adjoining Spa-bathroom, built in wardrobes, large mirror, French doors, views to the quiet garden
  • En-Suit Bathroom: Japanese wooden bath, Turkish copper sink, Separate Shower, toilet
  • 2nd Bedroom: with built-in shelving, Phone and internet sockets
  • Small Study/Office: Study or child/guest bedroom or storage
  • Other: Curtains, blinds, fire sensors, fixtures and some furniture are included in the sale
  • Lovely garden: Apple tree, mature trees and shrubs, tap and outdoor sockets, rain harvesting barrels and outdoor lights, two enclosed gas bottles, firewood storage, bike shed, garden shed, playhouse
  • Central heating and hot water are from the back boiler (heated by the wood burning stove) with electric backup
  • Wired for Telephone and Broadband connection
  • The house is around 87 sqm. internal space

Legal stuff:

NFD management has just confirmed to us in writing (August 2017) assuring that our Eco mobile indeed complies with new legislation and is considered legal. This follows lengthy conversations they had with Scottish government officials and Moray Council Officials, and with old Scottish legislation being phased out and becoming the same as in the rest of the UK.

The Findhorn Foundation Eco-Village, has an extremely low overall carbon footprint. A small wind farm provides the electricity needs and timber for fuel is available locally. The sky is big, the air is clean and the weather unusually sunny for the North of Scotland. Transport links by air and rail are close by. Car share schemes are available locally, and the flat terrain is ideal for cycling. An organic local shop stocks a wide range of produce and local organic fruit box and veg box schemes are available.

This is a unique opportunity to acquire a property in The Park in this Price Range, as most Findhorn Eco-Houses cost between £200,000 and £400,000 while cheap caravans cost between £10,000 and £50,000. With an Eco-‘Mobile’-home you benefit from both worlds – While you live in a high quality built Eco-house, there are:

  • No Hoco Park-services charge
  • No THA membership charge
  • Low (Band A) council tax
  • No Stamp Duty Fee
  • Legally no Solicitor fees needed, as FF/NFD will hold the transaction process

By purchasing our Eco-Mobile-Home, you also get the NFD Site-agreement moved to your name, this legally entitles you to live on that land, your rights of tenure are protected by The Mobile Home Act (1983).

The Mobile Home Act (1983) provides residents with various rights, which are enforceable through the civil courts. Those rights include:

  • Security of tenure
  • the right to sell a mobile home on a site
  • the right to give a mobile home to a member of the resident’s family
  • rights concerning the inheritance of a mobile home
  • the right to have a written agreement setting out both the site owner’s and the resident’s responsibilities

As the eco mobile owner, you would own the house – while the land itself is leased/rented from The Findhorn Foundation/NFD.

The agreement is permanently renewed every five years to all private mobile home owners in The Park by NFD, for more details please contact the Caravan Park Office (NFD). Ground Rent is currently around £100 a month.

Our Eco-Mobile-Home was built to comply with The Caravan Sites Act 1968 as it was updated in 2006 in England. (The law is currently under a lengthy process of also being updated under Scottish Parliament).

Our build was approved by the Findhorn Park-Planning-Group, by NFD who manage the Caravan Park and by the Findhorn Foundation Assets department.

To read our Blog on the building process of The Shire please Click Here

We didn’t hold back when investing all our life savings in building The Shire to the highest specs, thinking we would be staying a lifetime in it. We chose fine details and unique features. It cost us over £100,000 to build it. In addition we paid £30,000 for the ‘right’ to live on the plot. On top of that, we just finished renovating (January 2018) the property. There also is a 10% NFD commission we are obliged to pay on sale. Please note therefore, We will not accept low offers.

Before you arrange a viewing please consider the following points and do your research so not to waste your and our time:

1) Do you want to legally own a mobile-home rather than a house? It has its advantages and disadvantages. Check out current mobile-home legislation and the Mobile-Home-Agreement which is available on the NFD website. While the NFD Private Site agreement in renewed
every five years, the mobile home act allows you to live on the plot indefinitely while the park owner (i.e. Findhorn Foundation) holds a valid license to manage a caravan park.

2) Do you want to have a large Garden? We have a small stretch of land around the house, with a small herb garden, some berry bushes and a couple of fruit trees, The plot is approx 200 sqm, while the home foot-print is approx 110 sqm., you can easily make some raised beds to make a small herb garden. For larger Veg patches you may want to look locally in Findhorn and Forres if you want to grow your own vegetables (Cullern Garden, or transition town Forres may be options you wish to explore).
3) Are you looking to buy a holiday/second home or considering buying it as an investment? I would suggest you look elsewhere. The NFD would ask that you don’t sub-let your mobile home on a permanent or regular basis, though some concessions are allowed, still this needs to be your primary home. Also if you plan to sell the home on a few years down the line, notice you are legally obliged to pay 10% of the sale price back to NFD, meaning, you are very unlikely to make a profit over your investment.
4) Are you planning to run your business from home? If you are a small scale business (i.e. therapist, healer, office…) that should be ok, but you might want to consider a more central location, as our home is in a very private location in the park and could be difficult for customers/clients to find. Large Scale businesses are not allowed.
5) Do you need a lot of sun shine? We do get some sunshine in the plot, and there are large windows in the south facing side, in the living room and kitchen. But, Pineridge is a wooded area, you live in a forest environment and therefore it is not as sunny as other locations. Also it is Scotland not Spain. The plot is not ideal for solar panels, and electricity bills could get high if you rely mainly on the electric-backup to heat your water through winter rather than using the wood burning stove.  The home is well insulated and with the wood burning stove you can get it warm and cosy in the Winter and have plenty of hot water.
6) Do you want to make lots of alterations and add extensions to the home? Minor alterations are not an issue (i.e. it will be easy to change the office into a 2nd bedroom) and you can change things internally within reason if you have the budget to do so, you will need to discuss this with a professional. But you are certainly not allowed by NFD to make any extensions (i.e. build another floor, extra rooms and decks outside the current structure etc.)
7) Are you hoping to offer B&B in the home? The current set-up is not appropriate for B&B. It is ideal for a single or a couple, or possibly for a couple with one child.
8) Are you just curious to see an Eco-Mobile-Home from the inside? Please don’t waste our time and disturb our family life needlessly. There are Park tours, and you can stay in one of the B&Bs in The Field of Dreams to feed your curiosity. Thanks!
For further information or to arrange a viewing please Contact us
Property full address: The Shire, 234 Pineridge, The Park, Findhorn, Moray, IV36 3TB

Building Specifications:

Foundation: Concrete 500x500x500 cubes x 15Floor Structure:   295mm I-beams Insulated with 200mm Rockwool Frame-wrap for wind-tightness Sterlingboard 22mm for water-tightness and air-tightness Finished floor in solid oak and carpet
Walls: Spruce CLS timberframe 200mmSterlingboard counter batten Insulated with 200mm Rockwool Frame-wrap for wind-tightness Sterlingboard 15mm for air-tightness and structural strength Spruce Cladding 19mm thick treated with ronseal Plasterboard plain 12.5mm for internal finish Keim mineral paints
Ceiling: Sterling counter batten Insulated with 300mm Rockwool Frame-wrap for wind-tightness Sterlingboard 11mm for air-tightness Plasterboard plain 12.5mm for inside finishT&G pineboards for lounge ceiling Keim mineral paintsRoof Structure: Spruce CLS and Sterlingboard 11mm beams Spruce CLS 67×38 UnderframeBox profile Tin
Partitions: Spruce CLS stud 90mmInsulated with Sheep Wool Sterlingboard 11mmPlasterboard plain 12.5mmWindows/doors: Windows and external doors Spruce Timber frame U-value 1.1Double glazed 4-16-4Panel pine internal doors
Heating system: Thermaflow 180 boiler with electric immersion heater Wood burning stove with back boiler and radiators