Land Only Mortgage Calculator
A land loan is not a house mortgage with a different label. Lenders treat bare land as riskier collateral than a house, so they ask for bigger down payments, charge higher rates and offer shorter terms. This land only mortgage calculator prices your parcel the way lenders do: pick the land type and it suggests realistic terms, then shows the monthly payment, total interest and loan-to-value.
The land type is the whole point of this page. A generic mortgage tool will happily price a 30-year term that almost no land lender actually offers, and it will not tell you whether your down payment is strong or weak for the parcel you are buying. This tool does both, with a term ladder that runs from raw land to farmland, and a verdict badge that judges your down payment against the norm for the type you picked.
Land Only Mortgage Calculator
Payment on raw land, priced like a lender: pick the land type and it suggests realistic terms.
Principal and interest only. Taxes, insurance and fees are not included.
Quick Answer
A $100,000 improved lot with 25% down at 7.5% over 20 years means a $75,000 loan. The payment is $604 a month, total interest is $70,007, for $145,007 all-in, at 75% loan-to-value. The same parcel as raw land, at 40% down, 9% over 15 years, means a $60,000 loan at $609 a month with $49,541 of total interest. Nearly the same payment, on a much smaller loan, because the down payment does the heavy lifting.
Key takeaways
- The land type sets the terms: raw land suggests 40% down at 9% over 15 years, while an improved lot suggests 25% down at 7.5% over 20 years.
- Land rates run above house mortgage rates, because bare land is harder to resell and easier to walk away from.
- Local lenders, credit unions and Farm Credit associations are the primary route; most national banks skip land loans.
- For farmland, the USDA Farm Service Agency down payment program requires only 5% down for qualifying beginning farmers, a separate product from a standard land loan.
- Quick Answer
- The land-type term ladder
- The $100,000 improved lot, worked step by step
- Raw versus improved: the two-point penalty, priced
- Where to actually get a land loan
- What generic mortgage tools get wrong about land
- Three moves before you apply
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
The land-type term ladder
The short answer is that the worse the access and services, the more cash and the shorter the term. The table below is the ladder this tool is built on: the suggested down payment, rate and term for each type when you pick it in the calculator. These are lender-typical presets, not quotes, and your lender sets the final terms after underwriting.
| Land type | Suggested down | Suggested rate | Suggested term | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Improved lot | 25% | 7.5% | 20 years | Road and utilities in place, build-ready |
| Unimproved land | 30% | 8.0% | 15 years | Road access, no utilities yet |
| Raw land | 40% | 9.0% | 15 years | No road, no utilities, hardest to finance |
| Agricultural farmland | 25% | 7.0% | 25 years | Farm use, longest land term in the tool |
Two things in that table surprise first-time buyers. First, farmland gets the longest term and the lowest suggested rate in the tool, because farm lenders specialise in it and farm ownership programs support it. Second, raw land is not simply a worse version of an improved lot: it is a different underwriting problem, with a land use plan and a credit profile that matter as much as the price.
The $100,000 improved lot, worked step by step
Start with the price and the down payment. At $100,000 with 25% down, you pay $25,000 in cash and borrow $75,000, which is 75% loan-to-value. Then apply the rate and term: 7.5% a year over 20 years, which is 240 monthly payments. The standard amortisation formula gives a principal and interest payment of $604 a month, rounded from the unrounded figure the tool uses for its totals.
Multiply that payment out and the cost becomes clear. Over 240 payments you pay $145,007 in total, of which $70,007 is interest and $75,000 is the loan itself. Almost half the money you hand over across 20 years is interest, which is why a shorter term or a bigger down payment moves the total so much, even when the monthly payment barely changes.
Raw versus improved: the two-point penalty, priced
Put the same $100,000 parcel through both columns and the trade becomes concrete. As raw land at 40% down, 9% over 15 years, you borrow $60,000 at $609 a month and pay $49,541 in interest. As an improved lot at 25% down, 7.5% over 20 years, you borrow $75,000 at $604 a month and pay $70,007 in interest. The monthly payments differ by $5, but the improved lot lets you borrow $15,000 more while keeping $15,000 more cash in hand at closing.
Raw land
$60,000 loan at $609 a month, $49,541 interest. Toughest terms, smallest loan, most cash tied up at closing, hardest to finance at all.
Improved lot
$75,000 loan at $604 a month, $70,007 interest. Lower down payment, better rate, longer term, build-ready sooner, more total interest over the life of the loan.
The lesson is not that one column is always better. If you can improve the parcel, getting road access or a utilities estimate before you apply can move you from the raw column toward the improved column, and that move is worth more than haggling over a quarter point of rate. If you cannot, the raw column is honest about what it costs, and the bigger down payment is the price of admission.
Where to actually get a land loan
Start local. Community banks and credit unions that know the area land market approve land loans that national banks will not touch, because they can value the parcel themselves and they know what it would sell for. For agricultural and recreational land, Farm Credit associations specialise in exactly this collateral, including soil, timber and lease income that a commercial bank struggles to value.
For farmland specifically, check the USDA Farm Service Agency before you settle on a standard land loan. Its farm ownership loans cover purchase and development of farm property with terms up to 40 years, and its beginning farmers program requires only a 5% down payment from the applicant, with the agency financing 45% of the price. Those are farm programs with eligibility rules, not general land loans, so confirm you qualify before budgeting on them. Once you own the lot and build, price the house loan with our mortgage payment calculator, which is the house-mortgage version of this tool. If you plan to pay twice a month once the house loan starts, our bi-weekly mortgage payments calculator shows what that does to the term, and our construction mortgage calculator covers the build phase itself.
What generic mortgage tools get wrong about land
Most land loan tools on the web are generic mortgage calculators with land in the title. They default to 30 years, which almost no land lender offers for raw or unimproved parcels. They give no down payment guidance, so a buyer enters 10% down and gets a payment that no lender would approve. And several skip the loan-to-value figure, which is the first thing a land lender looks at.
This tool avoids all three. Its presets sit in the realistic 15 to 25 year band set by the land type, and they show the down payment a lender typically expects before you type anything, and its verdict badge judges your down payment against that norm. It still shows principal and interest only, and it says so, because taxes, fees and improvement costs are not part of the payment and should not be hidden inside it.
Three moves before you apply
First, write the land use plan. Nearly every land lender requires a detailed plan with a development timeline, and it directly affects approval odds and terms. Second, improve the parcel on paper first: confirm legal road access and get a utilities estimate before applying, because moving from raw toward improved terms can save rate points and add years of term. Third, talk to a local lender early, before you fall in love with a parcel, so you learn which column your parcel actually sits in while you can still walk away.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the land type, and that is exactly what this tool prices. In its presets, an improved lot suggests 25% down, unimproved land 30%, raw land 40% and agricultural farmland 25%. The verdict badge compares your down payment with the preset for the type you picked: at or above it is strong, within 10 points below it is typical, and further below it is flagged as an approval risk.
A house is shelter that a borrower is reluctant to walk away from, and it is easier for a lender to resell. Bare land has neither advantage, so lenders ask for more cash up front, charge a higher rate and offer a shorter term. Local lenders who know the area land market, credit unions and Farm Credit associations are the usual route when national banks decline the loan.
For a standalone land-only loan, no: the presets in this tool start at 25% down for the easiest types. Zero-down routes exist for different products, not for this one. Qualifying rural borrowers can combine land and construction in a USDA-backed construction-to-permanent loan, and beginning farmers can use the USDA Farm Service Agency down payment program, which requires only a 5% down payment for the farm purchase it covers. Those are separate loans with their own eligibility rules.
No. Veterans should not budget on a VA land-only loan, because the VA program does not offer one as a standalone product. A VA loan can cover land when it is part of an eligible home purchase or construction package, which is a different application from the land-only pricing in this tool.
Loan-to-value is the loan divided by the price, as a percentage. A $75,000 loan on a $100,000 lot is 75% LTV, which means you put in 25% and the lender carries 75%. It is the first number many land lenders look at, because it measures how much of their money is at risk if the parcel has to be sold.
No. The tool shows principal and interest only. Property taxes, insurance if any, survey and closing costs, and the cost of bringing in road access or utilities sit outside the payment. Budget those separately, and remember that improving access or utilities can move a parcel from the raw column to the improved column on a future application.
Because the raw-land terms do two opposite things at once. The bigger 40% down payment shrinks the loan to $60,000, but the 9% rate and 15-year term push the payment back up to $609 a month. The improved lot borrows more, $75,000, at 7.5% over 20 years, for $604 a month. Nearly the same payment buys a much bigger loan on the better parcel, which is why land type matters more than the headline rate alone.
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References
- Farm Ownership Loans (USDA Farm Service Agency, accessed 25 October 2026)
- Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Loans (USDA Farm Service Agency, accessed 25 October 2026)
- How to Finance a Land Purchase (Mossy Oak Properties, accessed 25 October 2026)
- Land Loan Calculator (Rediscover Rural, accessed 25 October 2026)
- Land Loan Calculator: Raw Land and Lot Financing (Calculator Hub, accessed 25 October 2026)
- Land Payment Calculator (The Calcs, accessed 25 October 2026)
- Rural Land Loan Calculator (Calculator City, accessed 25 October 2026)
- The Mortgage Payment Formula Explained Simply (MortgagePal, accessed 25 October 2026)
- Mortgage Amortization Explained: Where Your Payments Go (MoneysGuide, accessed 25 October 2026)
- How to Calculate Mortgage Amortization: Formula and Schedule (LegalClarity, accessed 25 October 2026)