Learning the Basics of Self-Building
Self-build is a phrase that is getting ever-popular in the housing market. So what is “self-build”? It’s a house you build yourself, as the term hints! Not necessarily only by yourself, but you place yourself in the position as planner, foreman, architect of your property and let trained 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 purchasing a home) – in point of fact, there are more self-builders in the UK than the total amount of homes being built by any single developer. The aim of self-build is to make a house to your exact specifications, not a template that the large developers work to.
Already you’re probably thinking: “I can’t build a house”. The good news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t mean you inevitably have to dive in with the actual development (in fact, only around 5% of self-builders actually get involved with the actual building work). Even when it comes to design, quite often this is delegated to a professional designer.. Self-build, mostly, is about you articulating (in plain English), what you want to the property designer – who then develops a plan dependent on your requirements. This plan then becomes the draft the builders work to. See? It’s not required to have any active participation in self-build. Having said that, the Do It Yourself enthusiast can use self-build as a chance to save some notes by contributing toward the tasks of self-build they have experience in – it’s your shout as to how much participation you want during the development.
Self-build sounds pricy, 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 homes sell very well 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 make sure the group of workers you choose are total professionals and that they can work as a group. For sure, you will require builders with lots of experience, particularly with specific types of construction machinery, such as concrete cutting chainsaws, block and slab splitters, power / disc cutters, ics diamond chainsaws, and wood saws. Not only do they need to be safe with such equipment, they of course must do their job well too!
This article is simply an introduction to the concept of developing a property by yourself, and I hope it will encourage those of you who are perhaps a little disconcerted by such projects. It needn’t take up all of your time, and you won’t need house building / designing skills, but employ carefully, and you will need to carefully work out the budget of the project.
