polarbearit

Well not literally, but I know of some land and have some equitity to fund the build...
The question is, has anyone else done it lately and are there any online resources with details of self builds and what my options are?

I don't want to build anything fancy, just a 4 bed detached place in a reasonable (though not flat) spot.

So any experiences would be greatly appreciated, and if anyone knows of any good online resources please post them...

Thanks

Jon

andrewdelvard

I've often thought of doing the same. Hope you pull it off mate.
Good Luck.

M_D_B

Jon,
there are at least 3 magazines out dealing with this.
Build It http://www.self-build.co.uk/
Self Build & Design http://www.selfbuildanddesign.com/ and
Homebuilding & Renovating http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/

and for other info
http://www.selfbuildcentre.com/

Hope these help,
Martin.

melpaul2002

All the sites listed my mdb are where you wanna be, A four bed house it a fairly large project though, you either need to project manage yourself or give away a fair % of your profit to get someone to manage it for you.

my boss built his own house and for 6 months he had to go onto site at least twice a day every day.

Watch Grand designs on C4 repeated on sky channels that will give you some help.

I have though of it myself but cant seem to find a plot most of the internet search sites want cash to tell you about the size of sites and price.

I would be interested to know what you paid for your plot and its size and where in the Uk if thats not too cheeky, mail be if you wish.

Good luck , do the right build and you will double your wages next year.

ptholt

I've been looking into this area as well, the land can be an issue though.

If it has no planning permission i've found very cheap land, but you run the risk of purchasing it and not getting planning permission.
Land with outlined planning permission (means a rough idea of what is allowed to be put there from what i can gather) fetches quite a lot more, and land with detailed planning permission (tells you exactly what can and cant be built) fetches even more.

The only drawback i see is buying land with no planning then getting refused, you need to speak to a local architect and maybe the council planning dept to get an idea if the project can go ahead and under what conditions eg if the land has no planning and is green belt, chances are unlikely they'll let you build a 5000sq ft house, but if you build a barn or something thats in keeping with the environment, you are more likely to get permission its also worth noting that most councils are supposed to have a quota of bungalows to houses. Seeing as most new bungalows (certainly in the south anyway) are only for retirement purposes, you have a greater chance of getting planning permission on one of these.

What does worry me is if you ask the vendor to look at planning, cos the minute they start asking the council you'll suddenly find a load of estate agents and builders get wind of it and you'll find yourself in a dutch auction (speaking from experience here as a friend is land and new homes manager for a large chain of estage agents and gives/gets back handers from all and sundry for such info).

Have included some interesting self build links etc below (also some nice kit house companies).

http://www.selfbuildit.co.uk
http://www.homebuilding.co.uk
http://www.homelandsplots.co.uk
http://www.selfbuildcentre.com
http://www.potton.co.uk
http://www.ebuild.co.uk
http://www.selfbuildanddesign.com
http://www.skantec.com


[Edited by ptholt - 1/1/2002 7:50:02 PM]

polarbearit

Cheers,

Some useful links...

The land is without permission, but I recently discovered an old friend now works as a planning officer, so I've had some good advice now

I'm not going to say where the land is/cost as the deal is yet to be done... But another thought, what are the tax implications of buying enough land for 3 plots and selling 2 of them once I have planning permission - it would be ideal if I could do that as the extra profit could help fund the build.

I have a friend who would be able to oversea the project which is useful as I don't have much experience of building projects (done 1 house renovation only), and my background is IT project management, which is quite different. Anyway my friend would be much cheaper than me to manage the project if my time was costed out to the project.

The potential savings are large, but the main thing is getting the house I want in the right place, and the location of the land is excellent for me.

Cheers for the help, has anyone on scoobynet done a self build???

Jon

ptholt

I'd be very interested to hear what your friend in planning has to say, specially if it bears up against what i had been told above.

Can't help too much with the tax side of things im affraid, though capital gains springs to mind.

I'm looking at a 10 acre site near the south coast, doesnt have planning, BUT they are putting in a bypass road very soon which should help my cause (hopefully) my plan was to divide into plots then look at popping a few kit houses or bungalows (depending on planning) on it and selling them once built as the money involved then gets seriously interesting

Though it does help if you have a building company thats more or less part of the family that i can trust to oversee and help build.

Dream Weaver

There was a guy from Scoobynet whose house was on the C4 Grand Designs programme. I'm sure he would have lots of knowledge on the subject but cant remember his username/name.

Try a search for Grand Designs, or go back through the Non Scooby related forum. It was about 4-6 months back IIRC

DW

XRS

I think it was Rupert U. I also suspect that he is known to a few people on this board (even if he doesn't visit very often) so he may get to hear about this thread.

IIRC though, he bought an existing property and built the new house on that site. Another was also done in Newhaven for the same series.

ptholt

web site for the channel 4 program is as follows btw -

http://www.channel4.com/4homes/grand_designs/

polarbearit

Pete,

Very interested in the larger scale development mail me offline for a chat - jmurray@nettery.com - My planning friend basically suggested that the site I was thinking of was fine for development. I haven't asked too many questions, but it is near a couple of large old buildings and modern detached places, so I was ok builing similar.

I have a friend who has an acre in Newbury which he spent much of the late 80's trying to get planning permission to develop. Anyway by the sound of it there is good chance he would get permission if he applied now.

The thing that worries me is that the current housing market is very high at the moment, and whilist they are unlikely to drop to a level that you could make a loss, there is a risk that selling the houses could take ages, particularly if they are fairly large.

Hence my plan was to 'cut my teeth' on building my own house first and see how the market pans out! I'd certainly much rather being doing property development than IT...

Jon

SWRTWannabe

Just get yourself the complete set of Bob the Builder video's and you'll be away

I think there are some mortgage companies that do special "self build" mortgages and offer advice too - I'm sure Nationwide was one.

Hope this helps!

mattstant

"The only drawback i see is buying land with no planning then getting refused,"

You do not actually need to own land to apply for planning consent you can in theory apply for planning consent to build in buckingham palace gardens.

Polarbearit you have already done the hard part ie finding a plot to build on i am a developerv and i cant find a decent plot for myself

by the way i design house plans for a living if you need some standard up to the minute plans i maybe be able to help.
you are to far away for me to give full architectural help but i do recommend you do this as there are many pifulls to come.

Matt

ptholt

I understand what your sayin matt but im more than a little cautious that if i was to in my case i'd suddenly find a whole load of builders and developers would get wind of it as soon as you mention it. Mainly thanks to knowing the guy i mentioned above.

fast bloke

Make an offer to the landowner subject to planning permission. You then apply for the permission after contracts are exchanged but before money changes hands. If you get permission the deal goes ahead. If you don't you can pull out. You usually need to offer more than a straight sale price to get the vendor to go with the clause.

ptholt

thats exactly along the lines that i was thinking of funnily enough

tho would like to have something drawn up from a solicitor though just to keep it all water tight etc.

Shark

Tax wise I'm sure that you would be liable for captiol gains at 40% on the gain. You can deduct expences. Ie cost of land + building costs etc = x. You pay 40% of x.

You get the VAT back on the house you build for yourself, doubt it on the other 2. Prob you know that, but thought I would post it.

Good luck

David

polarbearit

Shark,

Tax wise on the house, as long as you live in it and don't consistantly move you are NOT subject to Capitol Gains. Certainly neither of the people I know who built there own places and subsequently sold them have paid capital gains... I thought that if you consistantly moved from one self build to another you would be subject to capitol gains tax, but otherwise you weren't.

As to the plots I guess I would be subject to capitol gains, but I'm not sure how they would calculate the costs etc, maybe I could by the plot for my company and sell myself one of the plots and sell the others separately, then pay less, ie 20% divends on company money!

Ptholt - definately chat to your local planning office, if you don't I'll have to buy that land

SWRTWannabe - Nationwide I'll have to check


Thanks

Jon

Shark

Another thought - register the land as a 'small holding'. Basicly a small farm. I belive (not sure where to get the facts tho) this gives you certain 'rights' to build. Probably wouldn't help in getting permission for 2/3 houses, but may do with just the 1.

David

Shark

Jon

Spot on, sorry. If the house is your main resedince, then no CGT. I would guess that you would have to live in a caravan on site during the build to establish this. Or would you? You own the the house you live in now, sell it when the new house is built and move in. Would the new house be subject to CGT because you owned two houses at the time of moving?

Cheers

David

polarbearit

As I understand it - ignoring the complications of the extra plots, even if I keep living in my current house, as long as I move out of the old place and into the new one when it is completed I won't be subject to cgt. Certainly this is what one of my friends did (he built his house in the garden of the old house then moved out of the old one and into the new one when finished...)

Of course the best thing to do would be build house 1, live in it for a while and build on plot 2 then move out of house 1 and into
2 and so on - that'd be a theoretically tax free way of making money


Jon

Shark

Jon

Interseting topic. Gook luck, and do please let us know how you get on, even if it's in 6 months or so.

David

templar

capital gains - no matter how many houses you own, one will qualify for principle private residence relief, and be exempt from capital gains. this will usually be the house you're living in at the time. so - build the new house, move into it and sell the old one, and no capital gains (even if you move into the new one before selling the old one - the last three years of ownership are treated as deemed residence and still qualify for relief)

vat - new buildings for residential purposes are zero-rated, so yuo can claim the vat back on your costs. if you're not vat registered, you can make a one-off claim at the end of the construction, providing you will be living in it. you can then move out when you want to. in order to claim the vat on any other houses built on the plot, you will need to be vat registered, probably easiest to do this through the company.

as to building one, moving into it, building another, and so on, you need to be careful that you don't establish a trade, in which case you will be liable to income tax.

roj

Phil

Just a little point

If you plan to sell on these properties

You MAY struggle without an NHBC certificate

Thats my 2 euro's

Good Luck anyway

Phil

ptholt

It is possible to obtain nhbc though from what ive read on the sites at the top of the thread, doesnt go into much info tho.

mattstant

fastbloke is spot on this is standard procedure and any solicitor would be familiar with this practice

by the way ptholt a quiet word with a local planning officer is the best way to find out if planning consent will be approved they submit there proffesional opinoin to the local commitee and it is more often than not approved on that basis.


[Edited by mattstant - 1/2/2002 5:50:27 PM]