Self build homes: the ultimate way to achieve your dream home
Self-building is a great way to achieve your dream home within only the constraints of your budget and what the local planning authority will permit. Whilst you might adapt an existing property, self-building a new house offers more design flexibility as well as much being VAT-exempt. And, in our experience, it’s a way to ensure a higher quality new-house build because you are in charge.
Self-building can include doing some or all of the building work yourself or, more commonly, commissioning others to do so with you having overall control. An alternative is ‘custom building’, where you get someone else to do all the work with a ‘turnkey solution’. This may also include plot-finding and obtaining planning permission as well as full project management of the build process.
We chose to self-build our home, retaining overall control and undertaking some of the project management. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. If anything was stressful it was dealing with four different solicitors simultaneously because we needed easements over different neighbours’ land. It was otherwise a very enjoyable and exciting experience - and we are delighted with the finished product!
Key components of a self-build project
There are lots of self-build project to-do lists on the internet. This blog is not all-inclusive but a general guide. And lists are not necessarily to be followed in strict order (and you may undertake two or more tasks simultaneously). Based on our experience, you’ll need to do the following:
Get some initial ideas
Explore the internet and subscribe to self-build magazines (you can often get discounts on a year’s magazine subscription, especially at self-build exhibitions). This will help you start to get ideas about the sort of home you might want to live in and the materials it might be built with. You may also consider designing and building to a higher level of energy efficiency than that required by the current building regulations to reduce heating and cooling bills and to create a higher-quality indoor environment. You might even go for what is probably the gold standard: Passivhaus.
You’ll also need to start thinking about where you might want to build (see more below) and, again initially with some general internet searching, get an idea of the sort of thing that’s available.
Work out an initial budget
Be prepared for your initial budget ideas to change a lot! The cost of a building plot, professional and legal fees, building materials and labour, and a host of extras (furnishings, garden plants and trees etc.) are all likely to be more than you initially expect. So this stage is where you start to manage your hopes and expectations and begin to get a rough idea of what you can achieve.
Find a building plot
This is the most important and, probably, the most difficult stage of the whole process. It should not be rushed. If there is something wrong with where you’ve chosen to build then you’re unlikely to ever be happy with the end product no matter how stunning your house’s design.
We’ve written in more detail about this vital step in a separate post.
We’d suggest focussing on a particular area of the country, spending as much time there as possible getting to know it and identifying potential building plots. In our case, we sold our house and moved into rented accommodation whilst plot searching and then building. If you do this then consider looking to rent somewhere where you can also store your furniture and belongings: the whole self-build process is likely to take longer than you expect and putting furniture in storage can be very expensive.
Some important checks to make
We’d also suggest making some checks at an early stage, especially, (i) is the potential plot in a flood risk area? and (ii) are basic utilities, especially water and electricity, but also perhaps gas and sewerage, available for the site? Importantly, do not assume that because a near neighbour has an electricity (or whatever) supply that you can easily get one on your site. You may also want to check if anyone is planning to build something close to your plot: you do not buy a right in perpetuity to the views have when you find the plot.
Get to know the neighbours
In our experience, this is very important. You may not become bosom pals but good relationships from the outset can go a long way. We visited our potential future neighbours before we put in a bid for our building plot and discussed what we were proposing. This helped especially as we needed to put drainage, ducting and our sewage treatment plant under other people’s land.
We then discussed our more detailed plans to each of our future immediate neighbours before submitting them for full planning permission. We also spoke with key members of the parish council and attended the meeting where they formally discussed our planning application (the parish council is usually a consultee of the local planning authority), and we contacted our ward councillor. There were no formal objections to our full planning applications and two neighbours formally supported it.
Planning permission - outline
We made an offer for our building plot subject to our getting outline planning permission to give us an idea of what the local planners were likely to want. (For example, we got a good idea about the maximum permissible ridge height.) This also paved the way for a constructive relationship with planning officers. (We had previously made an offer subject to planning permission on another plot and could not get what we wanted so had to withdraw our offer - it’s better to find this out before final agreement on the purchase!)
House design and full planning permission application
Now things start to get exciting because you can get into much more detail of your house design. You will need to take account of other buildings in the immediate area and consider how your design might fit in and thus what the local planning authority might agree to as well as what might keep your new neighbours on board.
Whilst you can make an application for full planning consent on any plot in the country this takes more time and, unless you own it, someone else might buy it in the meantime. When your application for full planning permission is, hopefully, granted it will come with planning conditions. These will set out a variety of details with which you will have to comply including, for example, requiring you to provide details of proposed finishes (such as paint colours and types of bricks and roof tiles), and possible requirements for an ecological survey and the provision of a surface and foul water drainage strategy.
The future build site on the land we bought and (inset) one of the planning application site maps
Get quotations from several builders, and review your budget again and again and again…
To get an idea of the likely build cost you’ll need detailed written quotations from builders. We’d suggest that you get at least three and that you inspect - inside and out - some of the houses that they’ve built and, hopefully, talk with some of their former clients to find out what they were like to work with. In our view, it’s crucial that the chemistry is right between you and your builder: you’ll be spending quite a time working with them and making a plethora of decisions. Getting on well and being on the same wavelength is vital in our view.
You’ll also need to review your budget in the light of the quotations you get and this is where you may need to make some compromises. Our advice would be to avoid skimping on things that you’d want to fit once only, such as a staircase, tiling, and bathroom fittings.
Contingency fund
Unexpected things can happen, especially with groundworks so, unless you feel lucky, it’s prudent to set aside an additional sum of about 10-30% of your budget as a contingency. This may save you from making unwelcome compromises if the unexpected does happen.
Self-build mortgage
If you need a mortgage for some or all of your self-build you’ll need to get specialist advice. In the main, self-build mortgages are only offered by a small number of lenders and are either ‘in arrears’ (paying back your up-front money for each stage of the build) or ‘in advance’ (paying ahead of each stage but, usually, at a less favourable rate). We needed a small mortgage and, at the end of its relatively short term after the build completion, we re-mortgaged on a conventional basis for a much lower interest rate.
The building process
There are several important things that we’d recommend based on our experience:
plan everything meticulously with your builder and then don’t change anything - we believe that taking this approach was the main reason that our project came in on budget and on schedule;
agree who is project-managing which aspects. depending on the nature of your project this might be done by an external project manager, your builder, you or some combination of these. Good project management is vital to ensure that the right things turn up at the right time;
make sure that you have appropriate insurance to cover third party liabilities as well as theft from the site; consider obtaining self-build warranty insurance; and don’t forget to engage the local authority or a specialist company for building control (which confirms that the builder has done, at each stage, what is required to meet the relevant regulations;
keep in close contact with your builder and visit the site often - our builder encouraged us to do this and, we’d suggest, it’s a good way to ensure happiness all round with the final product; and
enjoy it!
Installation of some of the drainage for surface water and guttering
In any new build there will be some small issues that need resolving. Your builder will expect you to produce a ‘snagging list’ of things to be fixed before they finally leave. Make sure that you check that everything, as far as you can possibly tell, is done as it should be and is in working order and that the snags you identify are appropriately fixed.
Move in and enjoy your new home
Living in a house where you shaped both the design and the build is very satisfying and, for us, the excitement and enjoyment are still there. We hope that you will have a similar experience.