Buying or Building Your next House? A Look at Self-Build
Despite the recession, “self-build” homes are still popular. Why? Because they’ve invariably provided better value for money than simply purchasing a house. So what is “self-build”? It’s a property you build yourself, as the phrase suggests! It doesn’t have to mean LITERALLY by yourself, but you place yourself in the position as architect, planner, foreman of your property and allow professional workers do the task you order them to do. “Self-build” is pretty much recession-proof due to the relatively low costs involved (relative to buying a house) – in fact, there are more self-builders in the UK than the total number of properties being built by any single developer. The aim of self-build is to create a property to your exact specifications, not a template that the large developers work to.
Already you’re probably thinking: “But I’m not a builder”. The pleasant news is that self-build doesn’t mean you necessarily have to get stuck in with the actual development (as a matter of fact, only around 5% of self-builders in reality take a role in the actual building of the property). Even the design aspects are often finalised by a professional designer. Self-build, generally, is about you articulating (in plain English), what you need to the property designer – who then develops a design dependent on your prerequisites. This plan then becomes the blueprint the builders work to. Now do you see? It’s not required to have any proactive engagement in self-build. Having said that, the DIY enthusiast can use self-build as a chance to save some notes by helping out with the aspects of self-build they have experience in – it’s up to you how much involvement you want during the build.
Self-build sounds costly, but actually it’s broadly speaking cheaper than purchasing an already built property of the same specifications (up to 30% cheaper). That’s not all, self-built properties fetch a good price too – as much as 25% higher than the development costs, so self-build can be simply an investment, rather than a house to live in.
You must ensure the group of workers you choose are total professionals and that they can build as a squad. For sure, you will require workers with lots of experience, particularly with specific types of building machinery, such as floor saws, wall saws with diamond blades, angle grinders, masonry saws and stihl saws. With a skillful group of workers, you are also maximizing the safety levels of the development.
This article is just an introduction to self-build, and I hope it will inspire those of you who are perhaps a little daunted by such projects. It needn’t be time-intensive, and you won’t need any specific skills, but hire carefully, and you will need to carefully work out the budget of the project.
