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Building your own house

6 replies

Flossyfloof · 11/03/2014 16:10

Have you done it? I have seen a parcel of land with full planning permission and am tempted...I could afford the land but I don't know if I could afford the building costs. Have you done it? Please tell me about it if you have!

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Jelly15 · 11/03/2014 16:18

We have done it twice, but as DH is a builder we saved thousands. I hardly saw him during the builds as all his spare time was spent on the houses. The planning department were a nightmare to deal with on the first build though.

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MurtleTheTurtle · 11/03/2014 16:20

I have, best thing we ever did and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

We did the entire thing ourselves, designed the house, drew up the plans, went through planning, did out own building regs etc as well as the build itself.

It has been stressful at times but very rewarding and we now have a house worth twice what we could afford to buy otherwise

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grovel · 11/03/2014 16:23

Building costs range between £75 and £150 per square foot (dependent on materials, complexity of design etc).
Does the planning permission show the permitted square footage?

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Felix90 · 11/03/2014 16:25

Just marking place as I'm interested in replies. DP's Dad has planning permission to build on his land and has drawn up plans himself (he's a design engineer) for a house which he has offered to us. I have no idea about the ins and outs of it all!

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grovel · 11/03/2014 16:35

And a "standard" newbuild 3 bed house will be about 1400 square feet at £110 psf. Build cost of approx £154,000.

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Flossyfloof · 11/03/2014 17:06

Great replies, thank you - especially since I put this on the wrong forum!
There is just a drawing of a green square and a b/w picture of a random house with no other info. Plot itself is just over 300 sf. It is for a 1 1/2 storey house with 2/3 beds. They do specify a planning application from back in 2006, which they say is still live - but it does not show up on the council's planning site. I have a feeling that this piece of land has been up for a while and has now been reduced by about 10k. Not 100% sure about this though.
Murtle thanks so much! First question is - where are you? Second - do you want to do it all over again??!
I simply could not afford another £150k on top of the cost of the land so I suppose it is all pie in the sky.