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.

 

[Post and beam]

Milton Keynes people.

 

Part of the reason Milton Keynes exists is to make available serviced plots of land for self builders. There are hundreds of them in MK. The local authority in charge obviously has a different mindset and has done for very many years. 

Now, whether you want to live in MK is a different question but the point is, this is not a new idea and it has been done ( is being done). Why the idea has never really spread is beyond me.

[MPx]

To me the barriers are many fold:

Finding an affordable plot in a place you'd want to live

Finding an Architect who is on the same wavelength

Getting through the broken planning systems - including paying for endless reports by "experts"

Dealing with endless planning conditions

Dealing with endless Building Control issues

Finding out enough to make an appropriate choice on construction method

Finding a builder and/or trades competent in their work, affordable, and available

Having to make many many decisions on little information and only idealised drawings for reference

Lead time from initial idea to moving in date measured in several years.

 

Or you can just put up with the utter c**p thrown up by the nationals and shortcut the whole thing to a few months.

 

[Indy]

Town and Country planning act of 1947. Fix that and all the other dominos will fall.

[ToughButterCup]

On 25/08/2026 at 10:31, Matt Perkins said:

...

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

...

 

Your idea isn't simple enough. 

Others above have - between them - listed many of the barriers to entry into the self build sector. 

 

Solve any single one of them , and you're in business. 

[SteamyTea]

Why do people think that self building a home is cheaper, and better, that getting professionals to do it.

Just imagine what carnage there would be on the roads if people built their own bicycles from components, let alone a motorbike or car.

[Oz07]

A lot of Australian housing is serviced plots sold by land developers who build roads and infrastructure. Then builders have a number of home designs people can choose to have built on the plot or customise the design or even go bespoke. Obviously all differing costs. It does end up very low density and needing cars though which is not ideal.