Anyone self built - without family money/land?

[Literaryseed]

It's our absolute dream to self build but we have a very average income and every time we watch grand designs/read case studies with self builders 90% of them seem to be built in the parents back garden etc.

Have any of you managed a self build without that?

We're just moving to property for the OP.

I have friends who knocked down their house and re built on the same land. Looks incredible now and they are very happy. Don't have a clue about how the money side worked though, sorry.

From watching those shows, they always go way over budget so you would need a contingency fund of 50%. If I was to to it I would go for the prefab insulated panel type.

There are specific self build mortgages - have a look at Build It magazine (or similar) they have loads of info. It's certainly not for the faint hearted, finding a plot can takes years, getting planning permission too, and building on a budget is stressful and takes a long time - hugely rewarding when it's done tho!

Fingers crossed (contracts are due to be signed soon), we are planning to do just this. We’ve found an amazing plot of land (not in the UK though) which the seller got provisional PP on and will be building with an architect we know well (who built our current house).

I agree with a poster above that it’s not for the faint hearted. We will stay in our current house until the new one is finished, meaning we need a self build mortgage and bridging finance. We’ve been lucky to have won a fair bit of equity from price increases, plus decent savings. I have a very safe job and interest rates are crazily low.

I would definitely think about going down the line of a pre-fab house - the quality of many (but not all) are very good and you have control over the costs. I would look particularly at German firms who operate in the UK as they really are market leaders.

The difficulty usually is finding a suitable plot. Google earth is your friend - you can look at areas you like to see where plots may be available. Or look for run down houses that you may be able to demolish.

Friends bought 10 acres with a horrid bungalow and did a self build. 30 years ago now but they are still there. Both surveyors. Wasn’t a grand design though! Our other friends are doing a grand design in Cornwall and they are 8 years in!!! Still not finished. They bought a wreck and it’s certainly going to be great when finished. He’s an architect. Another architect friend did a grand design and did finish it! It’s amazing. Wasn’t cheap though! None of these people were given land but they all had property jobs!

Thank you everyone for the stories! It's undoubtedly very hard to do!

It’s hard on a limited budget and finding the right plot. Lots of people cannot do everything themselves either. So you need to factor everything in.,

Yep, bought land, got a mortgage and used builders plus separate trades.

We are hoping to self build but are thinking about buying a plot on a self build development (Graven Hill in Bicester) to simplify some of the uncertainty. It is still very much a pipe dream at the moment and trying to work out how much money we can borrow - I am very worried about being mortgaged to the hilt!

I think self build developments take the fun out of it. Yes, you can pick and mix how much you do but I’d hate to have a house I’d finished whilst others were still working on theirs for years. So the area never looks finished. The self build estates are formulaic and imagination is somewhat absent. There’s supposed to be one allocated in mid Bucks too. I just don’t get the attraction of these.

I’ve never seen a large scale self-build development but can’t really get on board with the idea. They must end up a complete mix of different house styles and it must take ages for a real community feel to develop.

There is a new road near us where just 8 plots were sold for self-builds. 7 of the houses are very modern architectural styles. 1 is a wooden chalet which stands next to the most modern futuristic minimalist house on the road. It makes me laugh that the owners must both look out the window and hate what they see, the neighboring house being the exact opposite of what they’ve built themselves.

I think the self build estates have a menu of house styles and levels of help from professionals. Plus all services are laid on I think. However individual interiors are obviously possible and it’s less formulaic than a standard estate. The one at Bicester was meant to be quite big. DH had some involvement with it but it’s a slow burn I think! Kevin McCloud over egged the enthusiasm! All the self builds we know are non estate. Potten homes were popular with self builders. One aspect is also time as well as money.