building our own 4 bed house on a plot of land

marc5180

Can anyone help, we have recently purchased a plot of land that we intend to build own our house on.

We wanted to know:

• What sq ft the average size 4 bed detached house is
  
• How much an average size 4 bed detached house would cost per sq ft
• What would be the best way to find an honest and reliable builder

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

mark5

I'm guessing about 180 sq metres upwards, i bought a new build 4 bed which is a little under that but if your building yourself you can go for bigger rooms.

marcg

1. 1500sqft+
2. min £100
3. Recommendations and get professional support (ie someone like me).

Unless you have serious construction legal and technical knowledge, leaving yourself entirely in the hands of a contractor is a big risk. For a probably £200k build you really need to have a contract between you and the builder and a professional to administer that contract.

Architects must be ARB registered to practice (RIBA can be joined by non-architects), check this and proof of Professional Indemnity insurance as well as recommendations.

If you don't use proper building contracts (ie JCT) then you run the risk of:
- The build taking much longer than anticipated, meaning extra borrowing/rent costs.
- The builder going out of business mid-build with no clear route to getting the build finished.
- The builder using sub-standard materials or labour.
- The builder claiming x and y weren't included and are therefore extra to the fixed price given.

pastmybest

http://www.buildstore.co.uk/finance/build-cost-calculator.html

I have found this to be a good source of information.

My last house was a 4 bedroomed detached and was internally excluding double garage 1650 ft sq. (153 sq metres) It was 22x14 lounge, 14x12 2nd reception, 12x11 dining room13x12 kitchen, ground floor toilet, upstairs four doubles with master being 20x12, family bathroom and ensuite bathroom.

It could of done with a larger hall and landing so would add 100/150 fs next time. I had a conservatory added which was OK but could of done with being bigger but can't remember the size. For two of us, 2 kids , etc felt big enough.

phlash

Seems a bit backward?

Did you not ask these questions before buying the land?

If the land was expensive enough (i.e. with DPP or OPP) then I would have thought that you would have considered these.

This leads me to ask the question.... does this land have any planning permission? If not, did you at least enquire about the liklihood of getting some?

marc5180

Hi thanks for all the replies, firstly let me say we havent bought the land..... I asked my other half to type this whilst i was at work and she thought i told her to say we had bought the land for some reason......

Anyway.. we have seen a plot of land for sale for 130k and it says it has planning permission for DPP ( not sure what this means) for a single dwelling or even 2 dwellings.

Weve been looking at buying a house for 18 months now but cannot find anything we really like, which is why we were thinking maybe building one is our best option.

We only have 250k to spend though so maybe this wouldnt be enough?

PasturesNew

DPP = Detailed Planning Permission. That means the whole design is already approved and plans available. If you want to change anything you'll have to put in for an amendment to the planning permission... if you like it exactly as it is, then you just start to get it built.

The alternative is "outline planning permission", which means there's an OK to build something of a particular type, but the actual look/dimensions/finish etc haven't been passed yet. e.g. "outline planning permission for a 3-bed detached", but then you need to get your actual design approved still.

ILW

marc5180 wrote: »

Hi thanks for all the replies, firstly let me say we havent bought the land..... I asked my other half to type this whilst i was at work and she thought i told her to say we had bought the land for some reason......

Anyway.. we have seen a plot of land for sale for 130k and it says it has planning permission for DPP ( not sure what this means) for a single dwelling or even 2 dwellings.

Weve been looking at buying a house for 18 months now but cannot find anything we really like, which is why we were thinking maybe building one is our best option.

We only have 250k to spend though so maybe this wouldnt be enough?

It will be very tight building a 4 bed for £120k, you will probably need all new services as well.

googler

If it has detailed planning, it's unlikely that it has permission for two alternative schemes - one or two dwellings.

In order to see what the planning covers, either go in person to the local council's planning dept, and ask to see the planning application (get the app number from the selling agent), or look it up online.

If the planned single dwelling matches what you want to do, as a prev poster said, buy it and start building. If not, you'll be looking at a few hundred to merely make a new application, possibly more if you engage architect to draw it up for you.....

If you have £250k to spend, the land is £130, leaving you £120k for the build....? Or do you have £250k left once you've bought the land?

marc5180

Hi, 250k in total for the land and the building.

jennifernil

In the nicest possible way.......I don't think you have enough knowledge to attempt this, certainly not on only £120k for a finished 4 bed house.

It might be possible, but only if you had the skills to manage it yourself, and to do quite a bit of the work.