Self Build Guide - How to find your Self Build Plot
Your self build plot will probably be the largest single financial outlay in the construction of your own home. Nothing else has the outright potential to influence the overall cost of your self build project, or in deciding whether or not you even proceed at all.
You could of course choose the time consuming way, which means that you contact all of the estate agents yourselves (there are well over approx 30,000 estate agents throughout the country not including Land agents, Architects and Surveyors), talk to the land agents and surveyors and write to all of the area developers and architects in your targeted counties.
You can also search out and create your very own building plot with a little imagination, why not divide a large garden, or even demolish an existing dilapidated building on a fair sized plot? Not only could it be more cost effective this way, but further investigation may result in the knowledge that the Local Authority will look sympathetically at your proposals rather than let the building fall into total disrepair, and therefore become a complete eyesore. If you were looking for a building plots for sale within a fairly small catchment area, a good idea would be to purchase Ordnance survey maps of the area. Then determine the houses that have large back gardens that could be utilised as additional building plots, you would then need to approach the local planning authority to see if they would permit building in that area. Next approach the owner or owners of the houses concerned and make them an offer for their gardens. Private people are often happier to sell their large gardens to self-builders rather than developers who wish to pack in as many building plots as possible.
However difficult it may seem to locate your ideal building plot, there are plenty of avenues for you to pursue. It also requires you to search for your self build plot within the realms of possibility.
The value of a particular self build building plots for sale is determined in many ways by the simple equation of supply and demand but more often than not it's the location that governs the price. Historically, land has always been considered as a sound and therefore prudent investment, traditionally keeping ahead of inflationary movements.
It will have become obvious by now that finding that ideal building plot can be an exhausting exercise in itself, and this is only the first step. Many people who start out on the self-build trail may become disappointed when, after several months of looking for that perfect building plot, driving around every inch of the local area, they still have nothing to show for their considerable dedication.
Continue Reading: Plot Check List
September 2004