New build - right at the start of the process

[LucyD]

Hello everyone. I’m new here and looking for information on how to approach a new build. It’s been a life long dream and now I have the opportunity. Any advice welcome on how to go about finding a plot (south east). It seems a bit of a cart and horse situation with planning permission and I’m struggling to understand how to tackle it. I’d love to hear your collective wisdom on how to tackle this first stage and any other resources you can recommend information for self builders. Many thanks! 

[ProDave]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

I used to live in Oxfordshire, and I was unable to fulfil my self build ambitions there as self build plots are rare and very expensive. It was not until we moved to the Highlands that we wer able to aford a plot and self build, now on No 2.

 

There is always Graven Hill at Bicester if that is within your area?

 

Best of luck and welcome to the forum.

[Weebles]

Welcome to the forum! 

You have found the right place. We are in the midst of our self build and this forum - the people on it - has been a constant source of advice, pragmatism, humour and support. 

We spent about 5 years looking for somewhere appropriate to “do up”. Finally bought a 3 bed damp asbestos filled bungalow on a small but quiet plot (in 2015). Lived in it for 2 years whilst deciding between renovation or knock down (chose knock down) and getting planning (took about a year or so from first architect conversation to final planning granted).

My advice is to enjoy the journey. It will be stressful, frustrating and you will lose sleep through overthinking everything but if you can broadly try to enjoy it, even the bad days, then it will be easier.  I try to remind myself of this at least weekly!

Good luck with the plot search.  Find an architect who listens to what you want (rather than one who designs the house that they want to, irrespective of your budget and wish list).

[Triassic]

Welcome to the forum, you’ll get loads of help and advice here.

 

When we started our search for the ‘perfect plot’ it took us four years to find it and the plot wasn’t cheap, in fact we ended up buying a house with a large garden in a rural area. We demolished the delapidated house and we’re in the process of building the replacement. 

 

The one one thing I’d suggest is that you won’t find your ideal plot advertised in your local estate agents window. You need to decide where you want to live and then get out on your bikes. Cycle around and stop,and talk to people, ask questions about potential building plots, look for old houses on good sized plots, maybe a farm building ripe for a make over, an old commercial establishment you could gain change of use for, you need to think laterally, oh and be willing to do the leg work!

[Pete]

6 hours ago, Triassic said:

Welcome to the forum, you’ll get loads of help and advice here.

 

When we started our search for the ‘perfect plot’ it took us four years to find it and the plot wasn’t cheap, in fact we ended up buying a house with a large garden in a rural area. We demolished the delapidated house and we’re in the process of building the replacement. 

 

The one one thing I’d suggest is that you won’t find your ideal plot advertised in your local estate agents window. You need to decide where you want to live and then get out on your bikes. Cycle around and stop,and talk to people, ask questions about potential building plots, look for old houses on good sized plots, maybe a farm building ripe for a make over, an old commercial establishment you could gain change of use for, you need to think laterally, oh and be willing to do the leg work!

What he said, as that is exactly what we did!

[Ferdinand]

Weclome.

 

This is how laid back you need to be in your head as a basic attitude - stress management combined with hard work when necessary.

 

My 3 comments would be:

 

1 - Front load your time budget; back load your money budget. ie Think before anything. The other way round is expensive.

2 - There is always a risk-reward tradeoff eg buy a plot with no pp or outline pp may be appropriately cheaper, but where do you sit on the spectrum?

3 - There is also always a time - money - cost tradeoff. Where do you sit on *that* spectrum?

 

IMO if you feel comfortable with your answers, to 2 and 3, and understand why you are where you are, you are well-placed.

 

Ferdinand

  

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

22 hours ago, LucyD said:

[...]

I’d love to hear your collective wisdom on how to tackle this first stage 

[...]

 

Patience, reading, networking, reading and more reading.  The emphasis in networking is on the work bit. It's not easy.

Welcome, by the way

Ian

[LucyD]

Thank you for all the replies. My initial confusion is buying a plot with or without planning permission. If you buy it with are you stuck with those plans? 

[PeterW]

26 minutes ago, LucyD said:

Thank you for all the replies. My initial confusion is buying a plot with or without planning permission. If you buy it with are you stuck with those plans? 

 

Not at all..!

 

You can buy with PP, then apply for Non Material Amendments to make minor changes, or go with a brand new PP to get what you want. As long as you commence the original PP before its expiry you can lock it in and then apply for something else so you always have a fall back.

 

Also worth bearing in mind that within reason you can make any internal changes you want to a set of PP designs without having to get permission. The only difference is when something like a roof light that has no visibility from it (for example a double height room) becomes part of a room where it could potentially overlook a neighbouring property.

[vivienz]

We bought our plot with an existing pp and started from scratch as the propsed build wasn't what we wanted.