New concept to make self and custom build easier and more accessible.

[Matt Perkins]

Hi all, 

 

I would love your feedback on a concept I'm developing to make self-build and custom builds more accessible and easier. 

 

I'm a chartered surveyor and project manager, and noticed that there's a real gap in the market for the average person to choose a custom build over the boring generic new build developments churned out by the big housebuilders. 

 

As such, I am thinking of developing a platform to digitise land and building into a fully immersive digital environment, allowing people to visualise and customise their dream home pre-development. I would then project manage all the necessary disciplines to deliver their dream home!

 

My intention is not to market or advertise this, simply to gather some valuable feedback from self and custom-build enthusiasts like your good selves 🙂 

 

Many thanks in advance, 

 

Matt

[IanR]

1 hour ago, Matt Perkins said:

As such, I am thinking of developing a platform to digitise land and building into a fully immersive digital environment, allowing people to visualise and customise their dream home pre-development.

 

Sorry, but that's not the road block to more people building custom homes.

[ProDave]

Availability of sensible priced plots and then the extra cost of a custom build compared to a standard box, is what limits the number of self builds.

 

If only government were to mandate that the mass market house builders who buy up most of the building land in large blocks, must sell a certain percentage of their plots for self build, at the same per house cost as the whole site cost them.

[saveasteading]

8 minutes ago, ProDave said:

must sell a certain percentage of their plots for self build, 

 

At first I thought, great idea. But they could end up being a shanty town as planning would be " interesting". 

I've seen this though. Was it on Simon Reeves series on Scandinavia?

 

The value of the plot could be interesting, as it would be fully serviced and the developer could calculate this any which way.

You've got me thinking though.

[ProDave]

There have been a few developments around here, all small scale, where a number of plots were sold individually for self build.  Yes it can take a while before they are all finished, but generally the results are good.

 

If this link works  https://maps.app.goo.gl/S3TDGbpQvWBsd7a59

 

All the houses to the west of that point were sold as individual plots, I wired one of those as a new build, and another when they extended into the loft.  These are the detached houses around a green.

 

The houses to the east of that point were all built by a developer.

 

Guess which end of the street I would prefer to live.