Self(ish) Build

[rainbowdoc]

Want to know the ins and outs of self build. I always loved grand designs when I was younger and have dreamed of building my own home. DH and I both worked incredibly hard at school and went to very prestigious universities and subsequently have good jobs. We have never had any money given to us from family and had to scrape together the deposit for our first house. We are now earning a lot more and right move seems to think we can afford a mortgage of £1.1 mil. Unfortunately neither of us come from wealthy families so we don't have a plot of land or a spare house to knock down. Was wondering about the nightmares of planning permission when looking for a plot, where to live when building and how much a plot should cost. Also any ideas of the style we should go for. I really love an oak frame company I found online. Their houses look beautiful!

For context I'm in an office job and DH works in NHS. We have 2 daughters who will go to primary next year. Neither of us are DIY ers so will ideally need contractors and someone to manage the project!

If you're thinking of using a timber frame company, they will usually be able to advise on everything from finding a plot onwards. This might be helpful https://www.nsbrc.co.uk/

Buildit live is also good but all 2023 events are now over.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have - we've done self builds but haven't done a timber frame build and haven't used finance for any of our builds. We use a main contractor and subcontractors and project manage ourselves. We also handle planning permission ourselves. Due to the shortage of decent plots, many self builders are now buying plots with existing houses they can demolish. It's a great experience and there's no substitute for a home designed to your exact specification!

I would take into account the fact that build costs are at an all time high. We are in a similar position to you financially, and we also sold our house at the height of covid so we made quite a good profit. We had planned to purchase a plot in Graven Hill in oxfordshire, designed a house, paid our architects and we ended up having to pull out of the process and losing the money right before foundations were set to start. Obviously it depends on where the plot is, if you've found an amazing piece of land that's different but we were definitely compromising on the location. That coupled with the fact that build costs were going up so much to the point that we would be in negative equity once the build was done, it actually made more financial sense to lose the money we had put in rather than going through with the build. We are in the process of purchasing a house now at 1 mill and even with that, stamp duty (stamp duty on self build is only for the land and foundations) and the financial hit from pulling out of the build, we are still better off. Even if money isn't a huge concern it's definitely something to think about.

also, we were using a project manager, not a main contractor. If we had opted for a main contractor we would have had to add another 200k to the build cost easy.

Do you know why build costs have gone up so much? Do you mind sharing how much the plot of land cost. I'm never very sure how much should be spent on each part of the build!

So I think it's a combination of a lot of things. Predominately increase in demand with supply issues on the rise, largely thanks to brexit and lockdown. Inflation and cost of living increases also have an impact and I think there is a labour shortage (probably also thanks to brexit). When we were in the process of pricing our self build, almost every week we were getting emails that the costs have gone up. I spoke to our project manager who has built houses for many years and he said pre covid you would have maybe one or two price increases in a year, now it's monthly and sometimes even weekly.For our self build the plot price was 250k and the foundation quote was 125 k (we were quoted 50-75k when we reserved the plot). Also keep in mind that that is pretty cheap for the UK, the only reason the plot was so cheap was because it was in Graven Hill, most other plots I've seen are double that if not more. Also, I'm not sure how much you know about Graven Hill but they are just having problem after problem and most people seem to be regretting building there. I'm not sure the UK really fully understands embracing self build. If however I was able to find an affordable plot that was a good size that wasn't located in an unsightly housing development, I might have continued with the self build so it really does depend on what you can find.Have you checked plot finder? https://www.plotfinder.net/

Graven Hill is a self build experiment and doesn't represent most people's experience of true 'self build'. Many self builders do have very large budgets and 500k for a decent plot isn't unusual. The 250k plots at Graven Hill are tiny. You always need to factor in a large contingency so a budget of £1.1 million isn't a lot if it includes the land purchase and all professional fees. We made a staggering profit on our first self build - luxury, energy efficient architect designed homes will always command a high price.

And just to add, get a decent QS to cost up your planns before going to planning. You will likely find that overall, build costs are not much higher than in 2021. They're certainly not spiralling and supply issues are largely over with decent planning and factoring in reasonable lead times, which is part of good project management.

Sounds v exciting!! Good luck!! I love a hufhaus although I don’t suppose that’s self-build. In fact, unless you’re actually building it yourself, in what way is your plan a self build? I have no idea! V jel though, we’re having an extension done at the mo and loving it, so exciting!

Frankly I have no idea why they call it self build 😂. I'm really starting to wish DH was a builder now! I think it's because you decided to build a fairly one off bespoke house. I have very unique taste and love drawing which is why I really want to pursue this! I always feel a bit sad when I look on rightmove as the prices are so high but nothing feels like it is to my taste. I want a barn style home with vaulted Ceilings, beautiful oak beam work and cozy fireplaces for any future dogs to cozy up in front of!

This is helpful if you're considering timber frame - same applies to SIPS and other non-standard constructiuon build methods:

https://www.onlinemortgageadvisor.co.uk/property-types/timber-framed-property/

I wasn't saying that GH is everyone's experience, just ours, and I think you might be the first person to say that build costs aren't going up. Sure they may not be a lot higher now than in 2021, but they are much higher post covid and post brexit, that's just a fact. Yes, GH plots are small and shitty, I def agree with that, it's a big reason why we pulled out. We were building our dream house, but not sure how great that actually is when you have a small plot, miniscule garden and are located in a shitty, unplanned housing development, though I have yet to find many well planned housing developments in the UK. We ended up purchasing instead and found a house that is modern, energy efficient and architect designed with high end features that is over 3000 square feet for less than 1.1. IMO plot prices are just too high and for anybody who doesn't have 600k for land and foundations and then another 700k for a decent house, self build isn't attainable in the UK. Unless you are happy with dan wood or something similar, but you get what you pay for.

You can buy 4 building plots 1.2 mil ( 300k each) Then sell the other 3 Its a fantastic location in a 700 acre country park.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134067500#/?channel=COM_BUY

I would imagine for most nice plots, where planning permission exists or is likely to be granted, you will be outbid by a builder/developer because they can build more cheaply than you can so can afford to spend a bit more on the plot.

Basically you have to be willing to spend an amount (on plot plus build) where you won’t ever get your money back. Plus “unique” properties tend to be harder to sell anyway.

A lot of self builders will buy a run down bungalow or barn and knock down/heavily convert it rather than start with a bare plot. Still not a cheap option!

that land does look beautiful but 1.2 mill isn't super attainable for most, esp as there is a chance you couldn't sell off the other 3 plots.

We are currently in the middle of a self build. We initially wanted to convert an old farmhouse but found this plot on Rightmove and it was in the perfect location and just lovely. It already had planning permission so we were ready to just go. Obviously price totally depends on location so it’s not very helpful but it was £350k for almost an acre. It’s a SIPS build (wooden structurally insulated panels) and then brick clad, the SIPS is the most expensive part at almost £100k including installation. We are lucky that we will be living with family during the build because rent costs eat up a lot of budget especially as you will almost definitely go over your timeframe. You will need a hefty deposit to secure a mortgage because self build mortgages are more difficult to get because they’re riskier. We purchased the land with cash which counted as our deposit and then borrowing the build cost. There are 2 types of self build mortgage - the first will lend you 80% of the money for each stage upfront and you need to find the rest of it yourself but this usually has a higher interest rate, the other will pay you in arrears after the first stage (foundations) so you will need to find the money for that upfront and then you get 80% of it back when the stage is completed, but this has a slightly lower interest rate. You need a specialist mortgage broker because you can’t apply for a self build mortgage yourself. Even just the application for the mortgage cost us about £3k. You then pay interest only on the mortgage until it’s completed and they will transfer it to a normal mortgage.
the whole build is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined - things that I had never even considered eg getting a specialist to work out where we can drain our water to, connections to utilities etc so using a project manager is necessary if you don’t know about any of this stuff (like me). Happy to answer anymore questions on my experience :) can’t tell you if it was a good idea yet because we’re right in the middle of it!

I second having a good project manager and being risk aware with a large contingency. Working in the industry and having been involved in house renovation, investment and development my whole life I am constantly surprised by how optimistic people are that they will make it when many fail/ end up in negligence actions and fall outs with contractors and materials providers. All the preconversation is understandably but unrealistically about trying to establish fixed costs over the whole build and very little about how to manage it or plan B if things go wrong like- discovery of underground contamination or infrastructure or lack of infrastructure you were hoping for straight through to a prolonged season of extreme weather. The rewards are great but do not take for granted they will automatically arrive and be mindful that until you are built there is a risk of things going quite badly wrong. Also it is unbelievably time consuming if you want to get it as good as it can be. Quality project management all the way. Unfortunately even larger budgets at the moment can seem small

that's great that you found a good plot and get to build where you want, congrats! Just out of curiosity, I've seen quite a few of these on rightmove over the years, plots with planning that are ready to go, but from what I could tell you had to build something specific and the planning isn't just an open acceptance based on certain criteria? Is this the case? When I looked we couldn't find anything that was a similar style to what we wanted to build and the ones that were, were 3 million plus. How much input do you have regarding the design of the house you are building?

Hello, no we have to stick to the planning permission already granted. Luckily, we liked it anyway. We are applying for a variation to add another bedroom and hoping this is easier to get because it won’t change the footprint. Initially getting planning permission for the plot was difficult for them because they had to prove it wasn’t green belt land but hoping just a variation will be easier to get. Maybe look into a plot that has permission for something you don’t love and then try to vary it? I know with our plot, developers were looking at it with a view to building more houses so they must have believed it would be possible to get changes made to the planning permission. But slow and expensive.

@Jinimcoroneo You can get pre-app advice from the local planning authority on whether your idea is likely to be approved without submitting a full application (and what would be acceptable). Some authorities provide better advice than others but it's worth bearing in mind. The downside to this is that if you choose to ignore their pre-app advice in a subsequent application, it might not be too well received.

Lots of people flip sites buy buying them without planning and getting a suitable planning permission for the area before offering them for sale. You would need to stick to the principal of the design, it is possible to apply for another planning permission or make small changes through reserved matters. For the lower risk of buying a site with planning you pay the uplift in value with planning and must check you are happy with the design of the planning

Lots of people flip sites buy buying them without planning and getting a suitable planning permission for the area before offering them for sale.

We've done this a few times and we also have good success removing AOCs where we can find the right property.

Looks like you can still claim the VAT back... https://www.gov.uk/vat-building-new-home