Is anyone else putting building projects on hold ?

[hattie43]

I was / am ready to put in a planning application to build a house on my land and speaking to a couple of friends has made me wonder if I should hold fire until there is more stability in the economy.

The planning app will cost circa £15k and I'm also concerned about spiralling costs and delays with a new build and the difficulty in contractors and builders being able to quote with much accuracy . I have a friend who has undertaken a similar project and an initial 12mth build time has dragged into 2 yrs and it's still not finished combined with him having to dip into his pension to fund the escalating costs .

Anyone else put plans on hold and any thoughts on whether it's worth holding on to see where we are in a year or so ?

I recently actually abandoned our self build plan, and ended up selling the land we purchased due to spiralling quotes, delays with contractors and delays with materials.

Luckily we didn't lose money and I'm so glad we sold, the stress was mounting with rising costs being quoted.

Personally I wouldn't undertake a big build project at the moment with costs projected to rise even further, not unless you have deep pockets and enjoy stress!

But you may be far braver than myself!

Yes thankyou, it's a real dilemma. I'm not a reckless person but usually happy to dig in but I'm erring on the side of caution with this one .
The timing is bad with everything so uncertain .

I would get on and secure planning permission and then put the actual build on hold if necessary. Permission lasts for 3 years anyway and if you decide not to go ahead and sell the land you can do so with permission attached which will increase the price.

Why is it costing you £15k for planning? 😱

I dunno, surely costs aren't going to come down any time soon

Planning consultants aren't cheap and there are so many surveys etc that need doing , it does include the architect costs though .

If you’ve already spent the £15k then surely it’s a no brainer to put the application in.

If you hadn’t yet spent the money I was going to suggest you put something (off the peg / kit house) in to get the permission and then amend later. At least that way you have increased the value of your investment.

No I haven't spent the money yet and I hadn't considered a kit plan . I live in a very fussy area so we'll see , thankyou

I posted about this elsewhere. We have no option but to build now (just moved into a house with DM and need to build an annexe plus extend main house). We've switched from a traditional build for the extensions to a modular build - essentially a kit build. This means the cost is fixed and it can be built very quickly. I feel much happier at having made this decision.