Self-build: what kind of house could I build for £1m?

[ProfessionalPirate]

DH and I have always dreamed of doing a self-build, and a plot has come onto the market that has got us interested. It already has a very run-down bungalow on it, so we’d be looking at knocking that down and starting again.

After land purchase our build budget would be around £1m. But I’m struggling to work out if that would be enough to build the sort of house we want. We’ve contacted an architect who we’ve worked with before for his opinion, but I know it’s going to be a difficult question to answer without actually going through the planning process and talking to a QS! So I’m wondering if anyone here who has been involved in a self build recently could share their experience with me?

Our minimum requirements would be 5 bed, 3 bath, dressing room. Large kitchen/diner/living. Separate sitting room. Playroom. Office. Plus landscaping / driveway. We favour fairly traditional- looking stone houses with modern touches. In the north of England, in case that makes a difference.

Also look at Potton Homes.

We had a great builder that did some very extensive work on our current house. He’s sadly retired since so i’m guessing he’s a bit out of the loop. Might still ask him though.

For example;

plot inc fees costs £1m
you then spend £1m on fees & build
the finished property value is £3m

and yes it does matter.

The £1m is our full build budget, there would be extra for contingency.

I think the million would get the structure built, but all the fitting out will be expensive and how high a spec are you going for? Lots of could be very expensive windows and doors, 3 fully fitted bathrooms, a kitchen maybe a utility room to fit out. Fancy staircase.

I think professional fees is where a lot of money can be spent but can be cut back on. If you can manage a lot of planning process and organise the trades and materials you’ll save money. so hire a ground works team to do the foundations, then a two plus one gang to put the shell up, then roofer and the trades to finish the inside. It’s quite cheap to get a shell up with a roof on really. The finishing gets very expensive
I’ve not done a new build but have done a lot of extensions and conversions

Pull in and contact for sure. If only for recs.

You did a major office Reno. You must have loads of contacts at your finger tips

We self built on a lot 12 yrs ago, started with a house plan. Look online for stock house plans.
We’re in Canada and used Jenish Designs check out their web site for examples.
Once we found our plan. Then contacted contractors. Chose one with an excellent reputation who stayed on time and budget.

Does it matter if we are not looking to make money?

I do think the nature of the plot being agricultural/equestrian use skews it, but if we could work out the likely value of just the bungalow and garden perhaps we could apply the logic.

You need someone to look at the foundations, access, so much Op!!! Basically… you need to get professionals around Before you make an offer

Don’t you get vat relief if it’s a new build ?

We self-built about 20 years ago, but in Ireland where it's common enough to do so in rural areas. We bought the site in October with outline planning permission and moved in a year later, so a relatively quick process for us.

No idea if it's helpful, but we reckon we saved about a third by self-building compared to the price of buying an existing house.

I'd advise a meeting with planning officers before you start, before you even make an offer on the site, just to be sure your vision and theirs are somewhat similar. I've known people get as far as architect drawings only for the planners to say no, which is money down the drain and a waste of time.

It'll be worth it though; I wouldn't change my house for the world.

Not if knocking down existing property i don’t think

Doesn’t matter about budget, is the stone actually available. In our area the quarries have closed and the amount of local stone available might build a garden wall but not a 5 bed house.

We do, you’re right! We are at the pondering stage rather than the offering stage. Trying to decide whether it’s even worth pursuing or not.

Good question. Something to consider.

Has it just come on the market?

yes. Gerroff Mumsnet and start lining up some professionals to give a view on foundations, access etc . Expect to pay for the time for the really good ones

Yeah the planning process is daunting. We currently live in a listed house in a conservation area, making alterations has been a nightmare! Thankfully this prospective plot doesn’t have any of those constraints. I’ll look into the possibility of meeting up with the planning officer.

A friend of mine has been self building a mostly stone house for over 2 years now - 4 beds, swimming pool, outside kitchen, art studio, gym, 4 bathrooms, massive open plan kitchen, living dining. They’ve gone over a million and they still don’t have an indoor kitchen, and they’ve done a lot of the build themselves (seriously - drainage, plastering, you name it they’ll give it a go). They were able to use a lot of the stone from an existing building as stone is very expensive which kept costs down a bit, but they still keep running out of money. The garden hasn’t been started on yet either. Allow for a lot of things going wrong and taking longer than you think it will, plus costing more than you thought. It’s a gorgeous house, but I don’t envy them the upkeep.

It has. It’s a very slow market around here at the moment for rural properties with a lot of land, but I don’t want to lose out because I didn’t act fast enough! I’ll see if our builder can come out and have a look.

Eek! This is what I’m worried about, although I’m not looking for swimming pools etc! I’m actually hoping the upkeep on this potential new house would be considerably lower than our current sprawling listed house though! That’s part of the reason we want to do it!

Realistically I think we would need to get it fully managed. I know money can be saved by doing it yourself, but equally there’s a risk it goes the other way entirely!

You can make an offer on it “subject to” then give yourself some breathing space to speak to a planner and trades etc.

if you can prove funds and offer the asking price I’m sure they will take it off the market to give you a window of a month or so.

would you still buy it if you can’t build what’s in your head? But you could still self build, either smaller, different design and structure.

I think I can be pretty flexible on the design, structure etc. I wouldn’t want to go too much smaller as that would be less than what we have now, and I feel it’s what we need. I’m not looking to build a gigantic mansion or anything. It would obviously be disppointing to buy it and then discover we couldn’t build anything close to what we want. I suppose that’s a risk to take.

My concern would be that this is your dream “forever” home and hence you may be reluctant to cut back on thinks, especially the quality of the internal fitout. The budget sounds pretty tight to me, but appreciate we don’t really have enough details. It’s always an option to get the plot and built the house with a view to adding/changing stuff in the longer term.