A-Z of Self Build Guides Where To Build Your Self Build Home

Date Published:

03/06/2008

The location of your plot is absolutely crucial to its success, and will almost certainly help define the design of the house, too. Here's how to get it right.

By Mark Ramuz

What Should You Look For?

Self build can be a rewarding experience in all senses but be prepared to spend long, frustrating hours trawling websites and papers trying to track down the site for you. It's extremely difficult to find that perfect countryside location, so you may have to adjust your expectations. As a guide, you will need a piece of land of at least a tenth of an acre to build a new home.

Sloping sites do pose problems but there are often workable solutions so consider anything if it's in the area you want - it may even be possible to parcel together a patchwork of smaller plots to make a buildable piece of land.

Even with stories of building on green belt land in the press, there are precious few rural idylls out there. Sellers may suggest that land for sale without planning permission is a great investment opportunity but it's always a risk. Outline planning consent is more promising but still needs plenty of background research to see if building what you want is really possible.

Where to Look on the Web

The largest pool of potential plots is on the web. Plotfinder is a plot-finding service that offers around 6,000 plots nationwide. A one-year subscription costs £40 and allows you to trawl through plots in up to five counties. UK Land Search runs a pay-as-you-go plot search with no sign up fee. A detailed plot report costs £1. Plotsearch is a database that can be searched for one year, in one country only, for £39. The 4Homes Property Search is also a good place to start looking for new land.

There's also a clever 'search credits' scheme so that you can try for a limited time for as little as £10. Plotbrowser is a no frills listing that costs £25 for a lifetime membership and you can search any county.

Land Auctions

Just like property auctions, this can be a good value source of land, as often a quick sale is needed. Attend at least a couple of auctions to see how they work before attempting any bids. There is normally only about a month between the actual announcement of the auction and the sale, during which time you will have to arrange finance and carry out any surveys if you are interested.

If you turn out to be the highest bidder at the auction, once the gavel falls, you have effectively exchanged contracts and will be asked to pay a deposit immediately, with the remaining balance payable within a set time, usually one month. You may also be able to contact the vendor before the auction and make a good offer. Try Savills as a good source of auctions.

Buy a Wreck

Keep an eye on bungalows or dilapidated properties in likely areas as well. This will widen the possibilities and may be the best option in some parts of the country, especially the south east. An existing structure should mean the access and services are already in place. Your Local Planning Authority will have strategies for the area and how rebuilding is treated varies from area to area. A phone call to the planning department should help.

Buying a wreck is a great way to get hold of a plot, and it should already be hooked up to utilities.

Local Papers

Ask a newsagent to put aside the local papers for your search area. You may be lucky and be the first to spot a private or commercial ad for land. Also, comb through the planning application pages to see if there are any leads. You could place an ad in a few local papers outlining the size and area of plot you want.