Your local land, secured.

A simple guide to Common's Land Purchase Facility

What is a Land Purchase Facility?

We know that finding and securing land for a local nature recovery project can be the hardest part. You often need to act fast, but fundraising takes time.

 

That’s where Common Nature Projects CIC steps in. We act as your temporary financial partner to secure the land immediately so you don’t lose the opportunity.

How it Works in 3 Steps:

 

  • We Buy It: When you identify a piece of land, we step in quickly to purchase and own it through our dedicated, asset-locked subsidiary, Common Nature Projects CIC.
  • You Fundraise (The 2-Year Window): While we hold the land, we give your group an exclusive Option Agreement—a legal promise that you have up to two years to raise the money needed to buy the land from us. We hold it on your behalf.
  • You Take Ownership: Once you have the funds (through grants, crowdfunding, etc.), you exercise your Option, purchase the land, and it becomes yours forever for local nature recovery!

Our partnership

Support to help you succeed

We developed this facility with the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation because we know grassroots groups often lack the time and specialist skills to handle big fundraising targets.

 

Our role is to support you:

  • Fundraising Plan: We help you create a clear plan with milestones for the 2-year period.
  • Skills Building: We offer coaching and support to help your team find and apply for grants, run successful crowdfunding initiatives, and build essential skills.
  • Regular Check-ins: We’ll meet with you regularly to check on progress and offer extra help if you start to fall behind.

We only succeed if you succeed. Our goal is for 100% of the land we buy to end up in community ownership.

An Access Point for the REACH fund

Support to help you succeed

The Reach Fund helps charities and social enterprises raise investment, the programme offers grants on average between £5,000 and £15,000. The grant is aimed at helping these organisations provide the final information that investors need before they can invest.

 

The Reach Fund is for charities and social enterprises located in England that need help providing the information that an investor needs.

You can only apply for a grant through this programme following a referral from an Access Point. Access Points are social investors approved by the Reach Fund who refer organisations they are working with to apply for grants.

 

Not sure if this fund is for you? Want to talk about your eligibility or the application process? We’re happy to help, just get in touch.