What to live in on site while building a house. Log cabin?

[QueenoftheIceAge]

Does anyone have any good suggestions for something we could put up to live in while we’re building?
We are aiming to start within 6 months, and think it’ll take up to two years, and as we’re currently paying £1k/month rent as well as high council and big heating bills, it seems sensible to move to the site and spend the rent money on something to live in while we’re building.
It’s a big site (acres) and there’s already a (really awful, unliveable) big mobile home there, which we’d want to replace with something nicer.
There are 5 of us so we’d really want four bedrooms, even if they’re small.
We stayed in a kind of Norwegian lodge home with a big deck in Wales once, which was great but maybe they’re way out of our budget!

So, you need to build something that's going to cost less that the cost of rent + council tax and bills for two years? What does that add up to (£24k for rent... how much for council tax and bills?)

Exactly. Ideally it would be £15-20k I guess? Mobile homes are a lot cheaper than that but I was hoping there might be a good suggestion out there for an alternative.

We lived in 2 mobile homes when my parents built a house. We used one as a massive kitchen/living room and the other for bedrooms - they were already converted and my Dad bought them from someone who'd done the same thing. We also had a massive portacabin for storing everything in. I have really happy memories of those days

I'd look around on some self building forums.

A decent log cabin, with base, insulated, connected to mains, plumbed in etc is going to be £35k at the very least, probably more like £40k+. But it will be a long term investment for potential as an annex or to rent out later on. We're having a 7mx4m cabin with tiny mezzanine for 4 of us and it will be £35k. We looked at much cheaper versions, but by the time we'd added on insulation etc this was the most cost effective. Also had a couple of builders quotes for similar cabins that were £85k+.

Can your mobile home be renovated? It will probably be the cheapest option.

Don't forget it may need planning permission if your going to live in it (ancillary accommodation).

Where is your cabin coming from, @Pinnacular? Did you do lots of research to find the best/cheapest?
We already have services in place, we’d put the base down ourselves and insulate it, fit bathroom and kitchen etc too. So that would be cheaper.
Planning permission allows for a temporary home while we are building so that’s covered.

Ours is coming from a local garden room company (South Midlands). We looked at a lot of places, but as we're going to use it quite a lot on the future too, we wanted it to last. A very basic similar cabin on its own was about £18-20k but all the little things add up - paint/stain, adding stud walls, flooring etc. Ours only has one bedroom though, plus the mezzanine.

PP isn't usually needed for a mobile home while construction is done. I don't think a log cabin type structure would be covered. You would need separate PP for that.

I doubt it would be financially viable as they are expensive unless it could be used afterwards as a holiday let perhaps?

I’ll have to talk to the planner to see what they’ll permit as ‘temporary accommodation’. Mobile homes are allowed, and lots of the cabin suppliers say they make them to fit the same spec so they can be considered mobile homes.
I just wondered if anyone had any good ideas about what we could suggest to the planners to replace the mobile home...