How much does it cost to build your own house?

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I realise this is a "how long is a piece of string" question. However, DP have just pulled out of our third attempt at buying a house as the survey has revealed serious structural issues. Three houses in a fricking row. This isstarting to lose us a lot of money!

I am starting to wonder how much it would cost for us to buy some land and get someone to build us something simple, two beds, a bungalow, nothing fancy.

Our budget is about £180k. Is this ridiculous?

Where do you live? Land with planning permission granted is pretty expensive in many parts of the UK. You could buy a cheaper plot without, but wouldn't be guarenteed permission to build.

We live in West Yorkshire. I'd forgotten you'd have to pay for the land as well . Oh well.

Have a look on rightmove - they advertise plots of land - you may strike it lucky!

A quick search shows 63 plots up to £80k. Leaving £100k for the house.

Build costs are around 1,000 sq/m, so a hundred square metre house, which is a standard 3 bed house sizes

It's not impossible chrome

Have a look at modular building, it can be a lot cheaper because it's so much faster.

I've done it. Building costs closer to £1500 sq/m plus landscaping, services costs etc etc. Also finding a bit of land is really really hard - although it may be easier where you are. Buy a copy of Homebuilding and Renovations.

If you can do it it's fantastic, but not for the faint hearted.

I agree that £1k/sqm sounds very low - I used to write about people who self-built and even several years ago that was a tight amount. Don't forget that, unless you buy a kit house, there would also be architect's fees etc. There is a BBC series called "The House £100,000 Built" and some people featured do manage construction costs with that budget but usually they are doing a fair amount of the work themselves. As a rule, most people don't.

Personally, I think you have to have a real desire to build your own house to go down that route rather than see it as a money-saving exercise. It can be but, at the lower end of the scale especially, often isn't.