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Empty Plot vs. House to Demolish – which option?


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As the title suggests, which option is best and what are the pro's and con's of searching for and buying an empty plot of land (with planning consent) versus buying a run-down but habitable house to demolish and rebuild?

 

Every article i come across when searching for advice on how to find the perfect plot only ever focuses on empty plots of land. Whilst every architect i've chatted to have strongly advised on buying a house and demolishing it due to utilities already being in place, amongst other reasons.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

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It all depends where you are. empty plots are cheap enough and easy to find up here that I doubt a knock down and rebuild would make financial sense as there is no way you would find one as cheap as a bare plot.  but in some areas the only way to find a plot is a knock down and rebuild.

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We did a knock down and rebuild, but it only made financial sense because the house we built was considerably larger than the one we knocked down. Even at 50% larger it wouldn't have worked.

 

There will be a premium for a new house over an old house but unless you think the house underutilises the plot and you can build a much larger one it is unlikely that it would make financial sense.

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31 minutes ago, bpk101 said:

As the title suggests, which option is best and what are the pro's and con's of searching for and buying an empty plot of land (with planning consent) versus buying a run-down but habitable house to demolish and rebuild?

 

Every article i come across when searching for advice on how to find the perfect plot only ever focuses on empty plots of land. Whilst every architect i've chatted to have strongly advised on buying a house and demolishing it due to utilities already being in place, amongst other reasons.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

A few years back when we started our first self build I would have said most places aren’t viable to knock down and rebuild 

But now where we are in the NW of England It’s quite normal for plots to sell over 300k So knockdown JS a good option 

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59 minutes ago, bpk101 said:

due to utilities already being in place

 

So how much can you be looking at for connection of utilities to an empty plot? I've heard stories (and seen posts on here) where people have been quoted north of £100k just for water, let alone gas, electricity, telephone and broadband etc! 

Obviously i don't want to be buying an empty plot and facing these sort of costs later down the line when we come to build. 

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If the plot is in a street that already has utilities in it, the cost of connecting to them should be pretty modest, £5000ish in total.

 

Sometimes people get caught out by things such as them claiming the system is full and you have to play for extra capacity.

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5 minutes ago, AliG said:

If the plot is in a street that already has utilities in it, the cost of connecting to them should be pretty modest, £5000ish in total.

 

Sometimes people get caught out by things such as them claiming the system is full and you have to play for extra capacity.

Agree at around 5k , plus 1k extra for a temp electricity supply. 

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It won't be appreciably cheaper than that on a plot with an existing house as the utilities will have to be disconnected then connected back up again and won't necessarily come in at exactly the same places.

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23 minutes ago, bpk101 said:

 

So how much can you be looking at for connection of utilities to an empty plot? I've heard stories (and seen posts on here) where people have been quoted north of £100k just for water, let alone gas, electricity, telephone and broadband etc! 

Obviously i don't want to be buying an empty plot and facing these sort of costs later down the line when we come to build. 


Location, location, location ..... you can get the maps for the services near a plot for a few pounds, some such as Cadent (gas) are free. The issue is that if there is no mains water or electricity within 1km, you are talking £20-40k minimum to connect. As other say, if you’re on an infil site then it could be a few thousand. 
 

I also think your architect is talking rubbish ... planning for replacements can be a nightmare, and you can budget £2k to detach the services from a building and connect a temporary builders supply, then the same to do them again to the new build. 

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15 hours ago, bpk101 said:

Whilst every architect i've chatted to have strongly advised on buying a house and demolishing it due to utilities already being in place, amongst other reasons.

 

Thoughts?

We lived in our old bungalow whilst building the new house in the garden. The advantages being that we were on site all the time and all the services were on site. Removal of telephone line was £0, connecting water £0 and electricity was £476 for removal and £636 to connect.

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Building plots simply don't exist in the suburb where I live, so buying what was possibly the worst and maybe the smallest house within a mile was the best we could manage.

 

We bought a tiny - less than 90m2 - 1950s bungalow that was in terrible condition. We lived in it for two years while we got planning, then rented locally for a year while we demolished and rebuilt. The new house is just over three times the floor area of the old one.

 

We bought in 2012. Looking at prices locally now, I'd be far less comfortable doing something like this in the current environment. There have been quite a few knock-downs in the area since we did ours, and I think the market is now factoring that into the prices of small run-down houses on good plots. 

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17 hours ago, PeterW said:

I also think your architect is talking rubbish ... planning for replacements can be a nightmare, and you can budget £2k to detach the services from a building and connect a temporary builders supply, then the same to do them again to the new build. 

 

Hmm, not 100% I agree. I think planning is the same challenge on a green field vs an established plot. We replaced a very trad 50's brick detached with a very modern white rendered house over twice the size above ground (never mind basement). 

 

Obviously if you're in a conservation area or have similar restrictions then this will be an issue. 

 

If you plan properly then the elec meter move to a kiosk can be a one time deal as you run from there to the new, no need to pay twice.

 

Also, while gas disconnection is expensive, reconnection is heavily subsidised and is a fraction of the original cost.

 

No need to do anything with water along as you just put a standpipe post meter on your land.

 

 

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