Buckerfan wrote:
I fly a Malibu Mirage off the strip.
It is an exceptional Mirage….
There is a previous thread here on creating a new airfield, and probably quite a few others.
The procedure is country dependent but the UK process is in the above thread – AFAIK.
You have the two options
The 2nd one is a much better way for general security of tenure but you would need to raise about 100k up front. Almost nobody has the balls (or the financial means) to do this. But it should be easy enough to raise that from a syndicate.
Due to the way land has been divided over the decades, it is also much easier to do say 400m than 800m, but 400m is extremely limiting and basically useless for general GA. The sort of aircraft which can use it could just fly out of a shed on a farm, mostly, and most of them are already doing exactly that. They are not many Maules (to pick just one) flying from Biggin Hill, or Shoreham 
I think the main difficulty with selling a house with a runway next to it is that the pilots who have serious money have already invested a lot into sorting out their hangarage etc situation, and they are mostly “ok” with what they have. And this tends to be an airport not too far away from where they live. Also people with money don’t want to live next to a runway; they (and their family) want to live somewhere nice and quiet. Ultimately, in property, that is what you pay the most money for. That is why most air park propositions in Europe have failed, and why many/most of the US ones are very private communities who severely restrict the traffic. And the pilots who have little money can’t afford a house for 2M. So these for-sale situations tend to be overpriced by 2x to 3x and are attractive to a very limited number of customers.
I disagree that 400 m is useless for “general” GA. Megève is 400-ish metres long at nearly 5,000 ft AMSL, but at weekends it’s rotten with ordinary GA iron from C150s through SR20s and TBM whatsits up to the odd DC3 (see photo above). All that’s required is for the driver to acquire the technique and take his hands out of his pockets.
400m tarmac or 400m grass? It is a huge difference. Then, add a 2m hedge to each end of the runway…
A few months ago I was looking into creating a “resort for pilots”; you can find some examples in the US (eg. https://www.bar10.com/) but there are very few in Europe it seems. (I just moved back to Europe and I’m looking for a cool project).
At the top end of the spectrum something like http://en.bellesdemeures.com/listings/sale/house-luxury/loches-37/119981831/ would do: you can carve a long enough runway in the woods and build some nice family activities in what seems to be a very decent setting.
Jacko: the field should be accessible by an aircraft renter with little flying experience. It has to be decent enough so that flight clubs don’t prohibit flying there (if that’s a thing in Europe; in CA few flying clubs will let you land on grass for instance) and with enough margins all around ..
@Jacko wrote:
Constructing new all-weather, all-season runways to replace them requires some effort and a bit of imagination, but precious little money. Ours cost about £10k, even though the site was not obviously suitable.
All-weather, all-season = hard runway, right? Pray tell, how did you manage to do it for £10k?
…I think Jacko may be referring to the conventional undercarriage fraternity
I thought so too… my TB20 needs to have its cover strapped on tight when in the presence of too many taildraggers 
I have looked at this on and off for a long time. Reality, nothing actually makes financial sense.
Looked for a farmers field. Millions of them everyone thinks, until you try to buy/rent/lease one for an airfield.
Looked at an existing airfield. Owner wanted out. He thinks £4.5 million, because he got a valuation from an agent. We think, actual brown field valuation, because in the real world, that is what it is, £850k. We even offered him a million cash. No, I want 4.5. He still has it…………
Looked at an old WW2 site. MOD, would not sell it.
Looked at a promising field, council owned. NIMBYS objected.
So, you eventually give up, use a friends existing one with the head down on 28 day rule, and convenient airports for the heavier GA stuff.
Jacko, are you confident about the 10K??? For our proposal on buying the existing airport, we needed a 200 mtr extension. Mates rates were at 450k…..
Peter wrote:
I thought so too… my TB20 needs to have its cover strapped on tight when in the presence of too many taildraggers
