Saul

£28-45k. Happy to do quite a bit myself internally and have an electrician father but definitely want the water tight structure handled by pros. Best of luck finishing yours. looks like great fun!

I am aware of them but put off by negative reviews and wondered about it's strength as they look more like posh sheds. Over a Double width door I'd be a little bit scared but am sure yours is fine especially with the shelter from the wall next to it. Good luck with the door!

Up to £45k = insane in my mind. Yours looks cool. Mine is on a housing estate so have to be mindful of the neighbours. Keeping it basic size for 6x5.5m Double with flat roof.

I intend to build a fairly simple double garage to house a classic car in the New Year. I'm astonished by the quotes that are coming through and wondered if anyone had experience with kit builds or whether getting a Block garage built and insulating it myself is a better more affordable route these days. I know Timber and other materials went crazy during the Pandemic but have prices not returned to normal? Thank you

Velfac yes. Not the grinder slip. Just the way they are sealed. I would expect it to be flush to window frame or look tidier. They're secure but look like they're just floating and not connected to brickwork. It's more about bad aesthetics and looking unfinished.

Yes but recessed an inch so set back from window edge. Should it not be sealed flush to window frame?

Just looks a bit shoddy for 'finished' are there suppose to be gaps around the windows like that? I don't think they are "shadow gaps" for design aesthetics. Won't the wind howl. Just looks unfinished/missing trim?

The plot is out by Foundation Sq so very different to the rest of the main site. A show home builder was quoted £69k for piled foundations by RM back in 2016 and GH expect the Hoare Lee price to be be circa £70k. I know you never know what you're dealing with until you actually break ground for real but I can't go anywhere near £70k with a £220k plot price + a hopeful £1500per sqm for 130sqm for a house that might be worth £450-500k... Back to Square 1

The small scale developer custom homes there are £435k for 3 bed but I am only interested in building my own design otherwise might as well go to a new build development and buy one for quite a bit cheaper. Graven Hill are squeezing every last drop out of the plots for self-build and keeping that route in the purview of the Grand Designs crowd where it has been for years. Seems like it's impossible to build there for £400k all in even taking on loads of work yourself inc project managing and doing without an Architect.

It's Golden Brick price so presume it is to DPC. I had been working on a £40-45k basis but they said there was no chance it would be that low. The DanWood house was apparently £70k a few years back on the same strip. I'll be contacting HexHomes to see the kind they had. Having said all that GH have an insane timescale planned which means it would be years before I got to build so unless I can buy the plot independently of Golden Brick it's a non-starter.

The plots all have £220k asking price with permissable GIA of 180m2 Have been trying to find a plot in the South for well over a year and Graven Hill is still the only option under £300k+ if you want to get planning and have any design freedom at all. It's a nightmare

I appreciate this is a very subjective question but I have been informed that the plot I am interested in buying will require Pile Foundations. I am awaiting Soil Survey documents that were completed in 2016 but it is known that this is poor Oxfordshire soil with extremely high clay content. The plot is level and access is great but those are about the only positive signs. I am planning on a 130sqm 2 storey Timber Frame house so nothing too dramatic. Graven Hill anticipate that the cost would be £70k which sounds absurdly expensive to me. That is also based on waiting for all 6 plots to sell and doing the Piling simultaneously. Anyone care to offer a ball park range of what might be a more typical cost for pile foundations, perhaps screw pile foundations to cut down on machinery needed? Thanks Saul

Cool I'll come say Hi before I meet Mark. 596 is the plot next to the Charlie Luxton Hex Home which is 597 on Foundation Square (That house has also just gone up for sale £500k) There are 5 others on the same row but they're an interim release ahead of Phase 2 which is coming later this Summer but not sure where that is going to be on site and I really don't want to delay further. Foundation Square plots are £220k which is £20k more than I wanted to pay given Golden Brick is likely to be £40-50k.

Hi Tom I have plot 596 on hold with a view to reserving soon pending further research. I will be up at the site this Wednesday meeting Mark from Benchmarkdesign who have done 18 houses at GH. They're currently building on Plot 275. GH are clearly sticking to their price structure so have lost the battle there and it sounds like the review into Right to Build by Richard Bacon MP is nothing more than a PR exercise and won't be tackling pricing control of Council Owned Land Disposal but what can you expect from the Conservatives. Anyway, as mentioned timescale is now my biggest concern as I want to do this as fast as humanly possible <1 year. Have you got your Superstructure started yet? If you're working up there on Wednesday it would be nice if I could swing by say hello and ask a couple of questions? Thanks Saul

Hi Steve Wondered how long GH took to exchange contracts after accepting your offer on the plot. I am hearing that they are beyond slow to add to the list of other issues/idiosyncrasies that have to be overcome before you are allowed to start your build on their site. Thanks Saul

Not sure how £150m is enough to mirror the Help to Buy scheme with 20% (40% in London) equity loan. A simple example where the Government lend 20% on a £400000 Self Build would allow for loans to 1875 builds... which is a little shy of the 30-40k builds they want to stimulate.

They'd also need to make any plots released affordable. Graven Hill have increased their prices 50.03% since 2016 versus an HPI of 17.03% for the Bicester area and that's coming from a site wholly owned by the Council. Hardly in the spirit of Right to Build and trying to promote Self & Custom Build as a way of tackling the housing crisis.

Everything South of say Toddington seems to be incredibly expensive. I'd like to buy a plot for under £200k to build a 120sqm detached modern house with a small garden. Having no joy via PlotBrowser / Plot Finder / Rightmove / OnTheMarket et al and local Estate Agents who almost laugh down the phone when I tell them what I'm looking for. Graven Hill appears to be the only place with a drip fed supply of practical plots but yes very expensive for how small they are and I agree there is a danger of ending up with either something extremely dull or beyond whacky either side of you.

I have heard that they have had a change of sales personnel at some stage and it is clear that it is now being managed with an Accountant's mentality where maximum profit is the driving force behind the project. Any Utopian vision of a community of self-builders with creative freedom appears to be losing the battle with the site looking more and more like a traditional housing development. Kevin McCloud did say that the success of the project was dependent upon continuing the spirit of The Street but that appears to have been as hastily abandoned as the £100k plot prices. The current strategy seems to be ask as much as possible whilst strictly controlling the supply and wait for that one person to bite. There are quite a few plots that are very clearly shovel ready with man holes and power outlets set up. These have not been "Sold" or "Reserved" but are also not yet showing on the site as "Coming Soon" or even "Not Yet Available". It creates the impression that Phase 1 only has three Self-Build plots left ie: Plot 376 Max GIA 151m2 3/4 bed for £215k, (I actually offered £195k for this plot) Plot 320 Max GIA 114m2 2/3 bed for £185k Plot 321 Max GIA 114m2 2/3 bed for £185k. Despite all of this I am still struggling to find any alternative locations in the South East/West of England. It seems the only place to buy affordable land is Lincolnshire but that is far too off the beaten track for my personal needs. I'll report back if I hear anything!

Good luck with it and if you're doing most of the work yourself you might be able to keep some equity and have a bespoke home that you love rather than some dull new development house. The 'Golden Brick' route is something that most Architects seem to see as another way for Graven Hill to have a license to print money by having a monopoly. Again the price list showing £19k-32k originally for a 3 bed is now apparently more like £35-50k. This could be done for significantly cheaper via a private contractor. The example below shows Plot price and GB prices a bit later down the line than initial price list and these are at levels that could be justified. However but using the example of Plot 376 jumping up to £215k + 50k means you're in negative equity if you build a house for say £200k given average prices for 3 beds in Bicester. (Not to mention that the first plots on the Street were £100k which I recall included foundations but could be wrong) It will be interesting to see what the prices are for the next phase and how many plots they release. I'm waiting to hear back from a Councillor from Cherwell Council who is on the Board of Directors for Graven Hill about their pricing strategy and justification for having increased them over 50% in the last 2 years. I might even do a freedom of information request regarding their release schedule as they definitely release them in batches to inflate prices. I'd love to build soon but doesn't look like things are heading in the right direction... best of luck with everything

Hi Matt, I've been looking to build at Graven Hill for a while but it seems their plot prices have all shot up like crazy. Original Price list below. I did bit on a plot on Hopcroft Avenue but was rejected. It's asking price was £72k more than it's neighbour. I think there is a conflict of interest going as Graven Hill Development Company is 100% owned by Cherwell Council. Throttling supply to drive up prices seems to go against their supposed obligations under the Government's Right to Build scheme.... but it's crazy times and people having been paying £50k above asking prices to buy houses in Beds/Bucks/Herts during the insane housing boom that has occurred in the middle of a recession in the middle of a Global Pandemic. A couple of the houses on The Street were ICF if you re-watch Episode 1 of Grand Designs. Looks like adult Lego and I guess a nice feeling to build a house with your bare hands! Good luck