Top Takeaways From The Self Build Hour

JANUARY - SELF BUILD RESOURCES WITH HARVEY FREMLIN 

WHAT IS THE NSBRC? 

"Ultimately, the reason the NSBRC exist is that we believe people deserve better homes. We provide that by running this national visitor centre that is open six days a week, Tuesdays to Sundays, all year round.

We inform people with the latest information and advice that’s available, and as a centre, it’s our role to be impartial. We don’t aim to steer people down particular directions.

We’ve put together the very best selection of manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers in the domestic house-building market, all under one rather large roof. It’s a real hive of activity at our event.”

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT DEMOGRAPHICS FOR SELF-BUILDERS? 

“So, typical people doing a self-build. Who are they? Well, age demographics show over a third of people answering our survey are in the 55 to 64 age brackets. Any expert that’s exhibited at the centre will testify to that. Additionally, almost three-quarters of our visitors were 55 plus.

It tends to be people in those older groups that are undertaking self-builds. Our survey showed a mix of people who are working full-time, retired, or semi-retired.

So, four in ten people are in that retiree category, which obviously matches the age profile, and seven out of ten people are building a new home, with the others extending or renovating an existing property. Of those completing a new build, almost half of those are planning to build a brand-new home from scratch on an empty plot.

21% told us they were planning to demolish an old property and replace it with a modern home. Additionally,29% were at the very early research stages, 38% had actually started their project, and just under 7% had completed their build.

The sweet spot, the typical budget for land and building was between £350,000 and £500,000. If you’re only experience in self-build comes from watching Grand Designs, you might assume the project budget needs to be far greater than we are finding the average budget is.

So, what are the top three motivators for self-builders? Number one is to achieve a higher quality than a standard new build, a new build that's built by some of the larger home builders in the UK. Number two, to create something that's more sustainable and environmentally friendly. And number three, to create a home that's built to your exact specifications.”

Thanks again to Harvey Fremlin for his valuable insight into the self-build industry. Head to nsbrc.co.uk to find out more about the centre and what it can offer you!

AC Architects are also very fortunate to have their own Architectural team based in the NSBRC, offering self-build design services to those south of the Scottish border. Pop in and speak to one of the team!

FEBRUARY - THE DESIGN PROCESS WITH JENNY CHANDELA AND IGA PANCZYNA

THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD PLOT

“First of all, we need to make sure that we have a plot before we get started. There are a lot of people who will come up to me and say ‘I’m ready to start my project. I know exactly how I want the house to flow, function, Look and I've got it sketched out. Can we get started?’ and the short answer to that is No, not yet. We need to get a plot first. We need to know where you're going to be developing this project.

There are a lot of reasons for that. One of the very simple reasons is you're just understanding whether there is a planning likelihood for developing in that particular location. Another is because we need to understand what the particulars are of that location. We never should be designing in a vacuum.

Everything should be considerate of the site location, but for a lot of us finding the plot of land is one of the most challenging components of that. So, as I said, we could do a deep dive into that, but if you can narrow your search on the location, this is going to help you move through the project quite a bit more seamlessly. You won't be searching through the entire UK, you'll be searching through a much smaller radius, which is then going to allow you to reach out to people who have feelers out. So, it's not just you searching.

Don't be too hung up on finding the perfect plot, because it probably doesn't exist. There are going to be positives and negatives for everything. So, you start to form your brief and understand what your must haves are versus what are the things you liked. Doing what you're doing right now is a great place to start as well, educating yourself.”

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR BRIEF

“When you're creating your brief, as a written brief, you can write up in big bold letters, what are the most important components of this project? Why are you doing this? Make sure that this is communicated strongly to your entire design team so that everyone is ensuring that they keep track of that. Then there's the very basics of what a brief is, what rooms do you need? What are the sizes that you need? Your ideal size for a kitchen may be completely different from my ideal size- so the more information you can give me about what works, and what doesn't work really helps the flow of the building. I'm not the one who has to drive up to the house at the end of the day, you are, so the house should fit your needs.

Understanding views, orientations, and energy performance is really important. There are a lot of real design decisions that can affect the overall performance of your building from that standpoint. Once again, what role are you going to play? Are you a really involved self-builder? Are you taking on some of the project management roles? Are you turning it over to a builder to develop it as a full turnkey budget and timescales? We always want to make sure that your expectations, budget and timescales align with the rest of the elements.

What additional information can you provide with us? Sketches are really good, you may think you're rubbish at drawing, but they help us a huge amount, whether it's a diagram or a floor plan, or something more involved in that SketchUp models. So SketchUp is free software that you can download, if you're so inclined, you can go into the software and start playing around with it and 3d, Lego or physical models, so assert a bit more hands-on and we like to do that sort of thing. So, we encourage you to sort of create drawings and add notes to them – so we understand what it is you’re after.”

HOW TO BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM

“First of all, just search people’s and professionals’ websites to look at their portfolios. See if there are commonalities with what you are trying to achieve. What kind of experience do these do these professions have? Do they have experience in Low Energy Design? Do they have experience with self-build? Do they have experience with modern construction methods?

If you're going for a passive house, make sure you've got a passive house designer, and do they have the ability to listen? Architects get a really bad rap for not being able to listen. So, let's make sure that you're comfortable with your architect and your design team's ability to hear what it is that you're hoping to achieve from this project and what your goals are, within this project.”

MARCH - FINDING AND EVALUATING LAND WITH ALLAN CORFIELD

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES TO FINDING A PLOT OF LAND?

“First and foremost is lack of supply, a lack of actual manageable supply that is as usable and part of the reason for that is that there's tight planning policy that stops you from just building whenever you want. There are many other reasons, like the big four or five developers’ land banking pieces of land that would be suitable for housing, and they've got of options on pieces of land that now isn't available for self-builders.

So again, that narrows down the opportunity. Most people are either looking for something rural in the middle of nowhere or something suburban within a village or a town, so that is limiting the supply. The other thing is that you've never done this before. For the vast majority of you this will be the first time you've actually gone out and looked for a plot. You may have looked for houses in the past, but you've gone straight to the stage and say looked on Rightmove. It's a different thing. We have to look differently, be a little bit more flexible and push the boundaries to try and create those interesting plots.

Often plots are too expensive. There's no real hurry or push for a landowner to sell something at a lower rate. They can just keep it so there's not that much competition in the marketplace. Some sites are too risky. If you're looking for something that you see that you think is a great deal for 20,000 pounds for a piece of land, and you think you're going to go off and build your house on it, chances are you won’t have planning policy to support it. It's most likely going to be animal farming land forever, and it's a huge risk on you to take that for something that maybe doesn't have any planning approvals.

We have to be looking for something factual, that's real, that's tangible. Something that we can then see through, and this will take longer than you want it to. You might be one of the lucky ones who goes on Plot Finder or Plot Search and finds that perfect site, but the chances are this is going to take three months to three years. It's not quick and it's not an easy process. Manage your expectations from the outset.”

ALLANS TOP TIPS TO FINDING A PLOT OF LAND

“One of the tricks that our clients use is looking on the planning portal to see previous planning applications that might have not been dealt with depending on the type of application. You can go into your local planning authority’s online portal to search for the area that you want to look at, and then date so think of application approvals.

Usually from that, you can get the design and you can get the people that were involved so you can contact them. That's a good way of finding out other opportunities that might not necessarily be on the market.

Try Google Earth Street View or Apple Maps. It may be your real go-to tool for finding plots that are within a settlement boundary. There's a good bit of policy for you to then go in and find a plot of land and make a site. That's one of the things that we try and emphasise to our clients is go off and introduce yourself to a claim and say, I want to build my house here. Is there an opportunity to buy your plot? You never know what the circumstances are. They might be sitting with that far too big piece of land and be delighted to get some of that taken off their hands for 50 to 100,000 pounds.

There are the search engines Plot Search & Plot Finder, where you can conduct a regionalised search in terms of what type of project you want, and you'll get the full information. We always find that they are a little bit more expensive, but they're a good starting point.

Self-build shows always have people, because we're in the industry and we know of sites that may be available, so that’s a good place to reach out and give them your information. Use the traditional methods as well. If you were going to look for a house to purchase, go to the estate agents. Tell them you're looking for a plot of x acreage or hectares or square metres, or what type of renovation project you want.

Get out there, get uncomfortable, go knock on doors, and you'll be amazed at the opportunities that you may create for yourself. You can also do adverts in the local papers and most local areas. Most villages will have a Facebook page or a Facebook group, so actually join those so they see what you're trying to do.

The final option that our clients may use auctions, and there's a number of auction sites around the UK that will be selling plots on behalf of land agents and private individuals, so there are lots of different opportunities.”

APRIL - RECLAIMING VAT FROM YOUR SELF BUILD WITH ANDREW JONES

FINDING OUT WHICH VAT SCHEME FITS YOUR PROJECT

“The DIY Housebuilders scheme is known within HMRC at VAT431. The scheme is split into two sections, and it is quite important from the outset that you know which side of the fence you sit on. The first one is known as VAT 431 NB, which quite creatively is referred to as a new build, the other being VAT 431 C, which is a conversion. Now, there is no middle ground here. You are either one or the other. The wording of your planning would dictate which category you fall into. There's no split liability between both, so it's you must know which one you are.”

THE THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN RECLAIMING VAT ON YOUR SELF BUILD PROJECT

“Here are the things to remember from what I've given you today. The timeline for submitting, six months. The building control completion certificate is non-negotiable, it's a definitive trigger. It must be done within six months of the date of the document you're using as evidence.

Regarding the names on the invoices, you don't have to have every document with your name. Don't worry if you've moved houses, you lived on-site you were in with your in-laws. All that is acceptable, it's fine. The only problem comes when it's in someone else's name, or a business be it affiliated with you or not. It must be in your name personally (or names if you are a couple).

Be sure you pay the correct rate of VAT applicable to your project. So that's the 5% on the conversion and 0% on a new build. If your contractor is not sure, feel free to give me a shout and I'm quite happy to speak to their accountant who will speak to them in turn.

Keep your documents safe. Clean, specifically out of sunlight. The vast majority of suppliers print very light receipts. You put that on the dash of the car on a sunny day, within two days that's a blank piece of paper. If you imagine that every invoice is worth 50 quid, you've just lost 50 quid on the dash of the car. Get into the habit of going home each night and putting your receipt in the box. Safe and dry.

You only get one opportunity to submit the claim. There's not a lot of wiggle room and it needs to be pretty much correct. HMRC would love you to make a mistake, so they have a reason to reduce or refuse your claim. Just be careful”

Thanks again to Andrew Jones for his valuable insight into the self-build industry. Head to vat431.co.uk to find out more about the VAT MAN and how he can help you!

We couldn’t be happier with the response we have had to our Self Build Hour series. These sessions have helped to bridge the gap between the client and contractor, making the self-build process a lot smoother for all involved. 

A big thank you to all who have attended. Make sure to join us next month for the next edition of the Self-Build Hour, where David Gallagher of Allan Corfield Structures will be here to talk about the structural implications of your self-build.!