Self/Custom build homes vs House on sale

[wanderingabout]

Hiya all, would love some insight and guidance over self build homes or custom build homes. Has anyone bought land and built their own house? Does it cost more than just buying a house. A 3 bed in SE costs around 300k. But would buying land for 150k and then constructing house on it be cheaper? Has anyone done this. I've researched lots but would like some more info. Thanks

Unless you're planning to build something really small, I'm sure the build costs would be far more than £150K. At various times I have toyed with the idea of knocking our house down (it's fair to say that OH has not shared the vision......!) but the build costs when I looked at online calculators came out much more than that.

I'd love to start from scratch. But finding land is the issue. When it comes up it seems to be snapped up by developers who have some kind of spidey sense before anyone else!

Building materials are sky high right now. Builders are in high demand.

A plot of land for £150k in the SE is a big of a pipe dream ! Way too cheap.

Build costs will be very high. £150,000 might get you 500 sq ft. Or less. You need triple that budget. Where are detached houses £300,000 in the SE? Except maybe on an estate? These figures are not sensible.

Building your own is worth it for the long haul. You need to build well and live in it. It really needs to be a house with style. There have been build your own houses on tv but the owners usually do the work.

You will never in a million years be able to build a whole house from scratch for £150k. We are refurbishing a house - will cost at least that and there's zero building work involved.
On top of that a plot of land with planning permission will be a lot more than £150k. And often you then need to pay £££££ to connect things like gas and electrics unless you find a serviced plot.
We've looked into it and I would have loved to do it but it only makes sense financially if you can build a grand design (or do literally everything yourselves).

The serviced plots on the estate of self builds in Bicester is worth a look. You have as much or as little done for you as you want. Personally I don’t see the point of self build on an estate but I suspect it’s cheaper. I don’t think you can build you’d own design either but I could be wrong.

I think if you want to self build you have to have a burning desire to want to design and build your own house and a strong vision of what you want. It’s a hard and stressful process and the determination to do it needs to be there to pull you through the many testing and frustrating days on site.
It’s not a good idea to do it to try and cost save - It won’t happen!