Completely newbie couple trying to purchase first house - Not much idea where to begin

[Chaos]

Hi everyone, really excited to be here. I'm Axel. 

 

After a long process of deliberation between ourselves, me and my partner decided to finally go down the route of buying property in the UK. 

A bit of background. We are both Spanish from Barcelona, and we came to Solihull 5 years ago now looking for an adventure. The last couple of years we wanted to leave the UK and try going nomad for a while, but in the end we were undecisive. Finally, we have decided that before doing that, we want to create our first base camp somewhere, and that somewhere we prefer it to be the UK. 

 

Now, we don't have a lot of specifications, and we are EXTREMELY unfamiliar with all of this. Things we know/wish for are:

• We don't have a specific location in mind, but location is important. Having a large international airport nearby is key for us. Birmingham has worked well for us so far, and while we know going norther would be cheaper, the airports are not any better, plus we get further away from London options. So ideally, we would be looking anywhere from Birmingham to the South (we know that's the most expensive part though, but still evaluating the options).
• We don't have a car (we sold it 2y ago as we didn't need or want it) and ideally we would like to live without one. We use Uber and public transport as needed. Meaning it's sort of important not to be fully isolated, even when we like it. Although if the location was amazing cost-wise, we can consider the car no problem. 
• We want a base camp. Not a fully fledged house. And this is key. Our dream about this started when, after traveling a lot and staying at lots of different places, we realised we really didn't need much to live in. 50sqm were quite enough for us, maybe tight, but 70sqm definitely enough. We currently live in a 3 bedroom semi attached house, and while we love it, we could perfectly live in just the base floor if the bedroom was down here. That is including our entire extension/dining room is a huge office.
• This is a must for us, the office. We work from home, and have 3 screen setups. We have all this on a full sized board table (2440x1220mm). We are happier to have a tiny main bedroom, but a massive office instead. 
• Linked with the previous, we are looking at a less UK standard house. We are European, and while we love our current UK traditional house, we prefer another style. More northern, modern. 
• Here come the wishes:
  • We have been looking at pre-fab houses, and realised they are really cheap. £25k-£75k we should be able to perfectly find something that suits us. 
  • With that in mind we thought: "That's actually cheap for a house! How cheap can we get a plot?" And looking a bit, we started seeing plots that ranged a LOT in price. From £10k-£20k all the way to £100k+. 
  • This idea of a base camp makes sense for us if we think of aiming at a total cost of around £100k. With some margin. Up to £130k I'd say. Now you might say (what my mum said to the plan) "Well you're not getting a house for that price". Ok... We just want a tiny dog house.  Really, don't think based on normal standards. We could definitely live in just our garden space. Think of a container house. You don't need lots of meters for that plot. Can't we get that plot type for up to £30-£70k? That's our mind picture. Is this feasible somehow?
• We are not in a rush. But we wouldn't like to leave it for a year either. 
• We have been looking at plots at Zoopla, but as I mentioned earlier, we are extreme newbies. They don't teach this in school. 
  • We don't know what to look for in a plot. 
    • For example, one of the latest I found was this one. In Reading, 1h from London, between 2 houses. Super well connected, perfectly residential area, seems large enough for our case... No idea what's wrong with it for £10k really. Sure, it's an auction, not final price, but... idk. Maybe? What am I missing?
  • We don't know if we need to ask for a mortgage before or after. Or how a self build mortgage (or any mortgage) works at all, or what good rates are. I'm financially literate though, just not familiar with mortgages. (Worried about this as we are both directors of our own LTD. Salaries are set arbitrarily low for tax purposes, and we get paid in dividends. Not sure if that's easily accepted.)
  • We don't know what the process looks like. In my mind it looks like this.  
    • Find plot. 
    • Find lender and ask for mortgage.
    • Buy plot. 
    • Find ??? that checks with Council (?) that you can build what you want in there. 
    • Wait until Council approves. 
    • Find ??? that designs/plans what you want to build. (If it's the pre fab I guess they directly do this). 
    • Pay. 
    • Wait for it and oversee every tiny detail as I want it perfect (and the contractors we've had in the UK so far haven't left great impressions).
  • As you can see, no idea of the agents involved in the process, or even their names.  Please correct me as much as needed, this is what I came here for. 
• One thing I know I did right. I already opened a LISA for me and my partner and maxed contributions. 

 

And I think this is basically it! Being migrants in the UK, we don't have a large acquaintance circle here, and the ones we have are young. So we don't have who to ask for advice on all these processes really. That's why I went to look for an online community and start learning from kind strangers. And here I am! 

Thank you so much for sticking by this huge wall of text, and I will be super grateful for any help or guide or anything you can share that helps me step forward even just a bit. 

[ToughButterCup]

Hello, welcome.

The first thing to advise is to spend a week or two reading BuildHub from top to bottom. There isn't one area referred to in your post that hasn't been covered in this discussion board many times over.  Really - just put time aside for it and read. Start with the Planning Section, and the blogs. They are a gold-mine of information.

 

Next. Persistence.

I have a strong feeling reading your post that you are in a hurry - relatively speaking. You may just be lucky: but prepare for a long haul.

 

Next

Read Local Authority Planning websites. Look at planning applications, and pay especial attention to reasons for planning application acceptance and refusal.

 

That should be about a month's work for you. 

Good luck.

Ian

[markc]

Hi and welcome, the above is great advice.

self build is rarely a way to get a cheap home, but a much better home for the same money …. With a lot of personal effort and work.

Building plots are pretty scares at the moment and £100k+ is cheap unless you are looking at the highlands / top of Scotland.

[Chaos]

44 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Hello, welcome.

The first thing to advise is to spend a week or two reading BuildHub from top to bottom. There isn't one area referred to in your post that hasn't been covered in this discussion board many times over.  Really - just put time aside for it and read. Start with the Planning Section, and the blogs. They are a gold-mine of information.

 

Next. Persistence.

I have a strong feeling reading your post that you are in a hurry - relatively speaking. You may just be lucky: but prepare for a long haul.

 

Next

Read Local Authority Planning websites. Look at planning applications, and pay especial attention to reasons for planning application acceptance and refusal.

 

That should be about a month's work for you. 

Good luck.

Ian

Hi Ian, 

 

thanks, will definitely do this. I was expecting to find some pinned threads gathering FAQs, but all I found were individual questions though. Isn't there any wiki of major resource where most common things are?

 

There is a hurry, but just a hurry to start. There is nothing stopping us at the moment to start advancing, it's just lack of info. We know this is definitely not a short process, but we just want to be progressing. 

 

35 minutes ago, markc said:

Hi and welcome, the above is great advice.

self build is rarely a way to get a cheap home, but a much better home for the same money …. With a lot of personal effort and work.

Building plots are pretty scares at the moment and £100k+ is cheap unless you are looking at the highlands / top of Scotland.

 

Thanks Mark. You mean that price is cheap for a plot, or that price for the total project?

Edited March 30, 2022 by Chaos

[ToughButterCup]

.... the plot ....

[Chaos]

4 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

.... the plot ....

 

Wow. If that's really the case then all this might then not be an option for us... 

 

I had been looking at recent final auction prices (this ones are from 14th Feb for example) and there were definitely options in the price range I mentioned.  The £100k+ are actually few and probably rare ones. 

 

I don't know, I'll keep researching. Thanks. 

 

[markc]

18 minutes ago, Chaos said:

 

Wow. If that's really the case then all this might then not be an option for us... 

 

I had been looking at recent final auction prices (this ones are from 14th Feb for example) and there were definitely options in the price range I mentioned.  The £100k+ are actually few and probably rare ones. 

 

I don't know, I'll keep researching. Thanks. 

 

You will find that many of those are small strips of land to extend a garden and/or not suitable for a residential building

[ToughButterCup]

Look at the different designations: Freehold Land, Vacant freehold land,  Investment Freehold site .... and then look the location up on Google Maps (or other mapping tool), you'll soon see the differences. ...

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, markc said:

You will find that many of those are small strips of land to extend a garden and/or not suitable for a residential building

 

Not suitable in terms of legally allowed? Are there any minimums or common rules? Or in terms that a normal house wouldn't fit? I've seen some of these you say, but again, our imagined house doesn't need more and we don't WANT more. We don't want a garden to take care of, so we actually prefer smaller plots than larger ones with potential. 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Chaos

[SimonD]

2 hours ago, Chaos said:

For example, one of the latest I found was this one. In Reading, 1h from London, between 2 houses. Super well connected, perfectly residential area, seems large enough for our case... No idea what's wrong with it for £10k really. Sure, it's an auction, not final price, but... idk. Maybe? What am I missing?

 

I'm guessing you don't know Reading very well? I'm sure the area has improved over the years but where that plot is used to be pretty rough. Great for access to the M4 mind you. Personally I'd recommend you try and narrow down your choice of area and then get to know it. That way you can begin to develop relationships locally to find a plot. I had subscribed to various plot finder services and looked at auction sitse for more than 10 years but the place we found came through deciding an area and getting to know the estate agents and clearly telling them what we were after. It then took only 8 months then. Lets not mention the rest of the journey 😉

 

 

[Chaos]

4 minutes ago, SimonD said:

 

I'm guessing you don't know Reading very well? I'm sure the area has improved over the years but where that plot is used to be pretty rough. Great for access to the M4 mind you. Personally I'd recommend you try and narrow down your choice of area and then get to know it. That way you can begin to develop relationships locally to find a plot. I had subscribed to various plot finder services and looked at auction sitse for more than 10 years but the place we found came through deciding an area and getting to know the estate agents and clearly telling them what we were after. It then took only 8 months then. Lets not mention the rest of the journey 😉

 

 

Not at all.  Never been there. Obviously if we had decided to seriously get interested we would have done research and probably visited. But what else can we do?

 

We cannot move to every place there's a plot available.  As I said, everywhere south of Midlands and with direct train to London works (as long as it's safe obv). How could I narrow that? 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Chaos

[ToughButterCup]

10 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Not suitable in terms of legally allowed? Are there any minimums or common rules?...

 

Yes.

Could I suggest you have a lot of reading to do, please.  You might usefully start here.

Edited March 30, 2022 by ToughButterCup

[Chaos]

21 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Yes.

Could I suggest you have a lot of reading to do, please.  You might usefully start here.

 

Well, none of you are very encouraging... 😅 I know I sound very naive, and I'm at the stage of being so, I guess. I started my post that way.

 

Thanks a lot for the resource, these hubs of info are just what I'm looking for now. Just started reading. It confuses me a bit though, as every step begins assuming you already have the land. So I cannot plan without a plot. And I cannot buy a plot without knowing if I'll be able to build what I want. So not sure where to begin, really. 

[ToughButterCup]

Thats easy. Anywhere in the whole build cycle is the answer.  Every bit of that cycle has a precedent.

 

How about a review of the sale prices of plots of land in an area that you favour?  Lets say that you can't afford most of them, but there are one or two that with a bit of determination you might be able to buy. (BTW, that's a common experience here on BH - we waited for a generation before we could build)

 

Then, imagine a design that you like. Look for planning applications for that type of house in your chosen area.  Look at why those applications were accepted, or refused. Look at those that were accepted. Cost them.

 

Now you have a savings target and a  much better guess at how much it's going to cost overall.

 

Waste time reading BuildHub.

[markc]

8 minutes ago, Chaos said:

 

Well, none of you are very encouraging... 😅 I know I sound very naive, and I'm at the stage of being so, I guess. I started my post that way.

 

Thanks a lot for the resource, these hubs of info are just what I'm looking for now. Just started reading. It confuses me a bit though, as every step begins assuming you already have the land. So I cannot plan without a plot. And I cannot buy a plot without knowing if I'll be able to build what I want. So not sure where to begin, really. 

Unfortunately UK is so much more restrictive than other countries when it comes to planning permission and building homes. Also the amount of land available to build on is small compared to demand.

I have been looking for over 2 years now and still not found a suitable plot or old house to knock down and start again.

yes I want a larger plot so being a bit more selective but the plots I have seen are stupid prices.

Luckily I have access to construction equipment and a lot of years construction experience meaning I can look at more difficult plots so hopefully I will find something soon.

don’t give up, there is always a way 

[Jilly]

If you are European, isn't it possible to get much more for your money and better weather in Southern Europe?

[SimonD]

2 hours ago, Chaos said:

How could I narrow that? 

 

By following the train line and identifying places along the line that you are attracted to and may have potential opportunities within your budget. You can then draw circle around those places to give you a search area. IMHO your search area is just too big and covers a whole host of areas with massive variations in land and property values, some are horrible while others are just amazing, which means you'll be struggling to make any valid comparison between plot prices and understand why they are how they are. There are also huge variations in the services to London - some are direct and fast, some are slow and meandering which means that you can select a town that has a direct link with London but takes 2.5 - 3 hours to get to London, whereas another town just a few miles away might have a station providing a link so you can get to London in less than 1.5 hours (consequently there usually a good price difference because of this too).

 

It may sound unhelpful, but this really is the starting point and requires a good amount of research. It's time consuming. It's a really good opportunity to get to know the country mind you and can be an adventure in itself.

 

2 hours ago, Chaos said:

And I cannot buy a plot without knowing if I'll be able to build what I want.

 

That, I'm afraid to say, is the reality every self-builder has to face. It's a gamble but one where you can increase your odds through diligent research - e.g. how to asses the potential of a plot.

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, Jilly said:

If you are European, isn't it possible to get much more for your money and better weather in Southern Europe?

 

Definitely. We were looking at prices in Barcelona for plots and we definitely know that it'd be way cheaper, also way easier since self building over there is quite common and standard practice, and there's way less restrictions in regards of the house type. You can see houses of any type everywhere. But all this comes to personal reasons. We can always go back there and stay at friends and family, or even rent. But we don't want to get stuck there if for some reason we struggle financially at some point, or there's pandemics, or we have kids. Not because it's bad, at all. We love it. It's just "not adventure" for us, and the world feels stuck. But again, it's a pure personal experience from us being from there. Moving abroad allowed us to grow so much, and we want to keep the rate going, so it's a bit of pushing ourselves.  

 

FYI, foreseeing all the time and effort this is going to take, maybe we were indeed on a rush. We are leaning now to just get on the property ladder the easy way, just buying a built house. And then, once we're not losing our money on rent, we have all the time in the world to do the next step without a rush, even if it takes years to make it. We might even change our minds by then as well. 

 

Another thing I quickly learned while reading today: What we were looking for wasn't a self build. It was actually a custom build. Might have confused some of you, and myself up here. 

[Temp]

4 hours ago, Chaos said:

 

Not suitable in terms of legally allowed? Are there any minimums or common rules? Or in terms that a normal house wouldn't fit? I've seen some of these you say, but again, our imagined house doesn't need more and we don't WANT more. We don't want a garden to take care of, so we actually prefer smaller plots than larger ones with potential. 

 

We are British but lived in Belgium for 10+ years.  There is quite a difference between the rules in the EU and the UK.  Here in the UK the Planning Department at the local Council frequently have strong views on where you can build and what you can build. 

 

I would say the biggest difference is in the UK they normally like the size and style of a new house to be similar  to existing houses in the area. The more uniform existing houses are the harder it is to get permission to build something radically different. 

 

In many areas the difficulty of finding suitable land means that you sometimes have to find land first, then see what the Planning Department will allow you to build on it. If you decide on the design of the house first you may find it near impossible to find land on which the planners will allow you to build it.

 

You also need to know that obtaining Permission to build a house on land greatly increases its value. In some parts the difficulty of getting permission can increase the value of land by a factor of 10 or 20. So a field worth £20,000 might be worth £200,000 or £400,000 once permission has been obtained. Beware this means there are scammers that will try to sell you part of a field by telling you it will be easy to get permission. Always use your own solicitor never one recommended by the seller. If in any doubt post a question on the forum. 

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

 

We are British but lived in Belgium for 10+ years.  There is quite a difference between the rules in the EU and the UK.  Here in the UK the Planning Department at the local Council frequently have strong views on where you can build and what you can build. 

 

I would say the biggest difference is in the UK they normally like the size and style of a new house to be similar  to existing houses in the area. The more uniform existing houses are the harder it is to get permission to build something radically different. 

 

In many areas the difficulty of finding suitable land means that you sometimes have to find land first, then see what the Planning Department will allow you to build on it. If you decide on the design of the house first you may find it near impossible to find land on which the planners will allow you to build it.

 

You also need to know that obtaining Permission to build a house on land greatly increases its value. In some parts the difficulty of getting permission can increase the value of land by a factor of 10 or 20. So a field worth £20,000 might be worth £200,000 or £400,000 once permission has been obtained. Beware this means there are scammers that will try to sell you part of a field by telling you it will be easy to get permission. Always use your own solicitor never one recommended by the seller. If in any doubt post a question on the forum. 

 

Thanks a lot for this. It really explains why all the housing the UK is so similar and self build so minority. One small question. When a permission has been granted, it is for a specific project, right? So even if some land has permission, and you buy it based on that, it might not allow to build whatever you want. Only what whoever asked for that permission tried to get accepted. Am I correct? If so, having "permission" as a general thing seems kind of worthless, unless you really don't care what you're building.

[Buzz]

Hi @Chaos its a bit catch 22, if you buy a plot with detailed planning approval you know exactly what you can build without having to deal with the local planning authority, of course you can put in to change this, minor changes will be waved through major changes could be a battle , an extreme example would be planning approval for a 3 bed bungalow and you want a 5 bed house. Plots sold with outline planning permission normally will state what the outline is for 

,eg, detached family home and will have a site plan showing roughly the footprint of the build on the plot, at this point it is then find an architect and get your design through planning.