Does the UK do subdivisions?

LokiOfNZ

TLDR; Does the UK do land subdivisions enabling many different individuals to purchase plots of land and 'self-build'?

The UK has a massive housing issue. There aren't enough houses being built. Seemingly the government at nearly any level isn't keen to get involved in building more housing stock any more and it seems a rare thing to hear of individuals building their own house. This leaves the housing stock at the mercy of developers who don't seem to be able to keep up with demand (for various reasons) and if the news is to be believed are in financial trouble themselves.

Coming from the Antipodes there is one thing I haven't noticed in the UK that is quite common back home; subdivisions. Basically a farmer or council decides a bunch of paddocks are surplus to requirements or are more valuable as houses. This might be on the edge of an existing town or in a completely new place ready for a new town. That area gets approved for houses and new roads and utilities are laid.

Seemingly here in the UK a major developer would then move in and build a bunch of houses varying in size and style centered around a handful of designs. They'd then sell those to hopeful buyers. We'd call that spec building back home, building while speculating that someone will want to buy the house (which here is a fair bet).

However just as common in NZ would be for the plots of land to be individually sold to separate people who can then undertake some form of 'self-building' on their site as they please. They might contract a building company who basically sells design-planning-building services either bespoke or from set plans or they might design something totally new themselves and start swinging hammers. Or anywhere in between. Cohesion of the new neighbour is maintained via usually strict convents of what you can and can't build, what materials can and can't be used etc. But the result is new neighbours or entire towns, more houses built and less demand on current stock. For many people back home, even first time buyers, the question "Shall we buy a house?" is quite often followed by "Or build one?" whereas here self-building seems to be realm of the intrepid or experienced. Even the term self-building seems odd as it really only means 'not buying from a developer' as opposed to actually doing any building yourself.

So original question is, does the UK do much of this? Should it do more? Could that help alleviate some of the housing issues in the UK? It could be said that one or two people building their own home won't help much, but then one or two people investing their pensions in a buy-to-let hasn't caused a housing crisis, several million doing so has.

dc197

Yes, it happens, though no where nearly as commonly as the developer approach you describe.

I live in a self-build that was parcelled off the manner you describe. I did not build it.
My street is wonderful, all the houses are unique, there is no cookie-cutter.

Guest101

It's much harder to get finance for a self-build, with more regulations than most people are willing to put up with.


Buy-to-let isn't causing a housing crisis. Those properties are lived-in. To a small degree 2nd home ownership plays a part, but it's insignificant.


The problem is multi-level - immigration (yes despite what some people say does add to the problem), but equally advances in medicine mean we're living longer and old stock isn't being rotated, higher divorce rates play a part as families use two properties when one was sufficient in the past, etc etc.


This problem isn't going to be solved by self-building.

lincroft1710

A lot of lower priced housing in UK is either apartments or terraced or semi-detached houses, types of construction which use less land and materials. Land has to be put to best use where housing is concerned, so self builds aren't really the answer

AdrianC

Guest101 wrote: »

The problem is multi-level - immigration (yes despite what some people say does add to the problem)

Equally, it's nowhere near as much as people say.

Net migration of 330,000 last year, into a country of 65,000,000, means that there was one extra person for every 197 people already here. New migrants are also more likely to live as part of larger households than those already here, so there is likely to be a lower increase in the number of households.

but equally advances in medicine mean we're living longer

There were 170,000 more births than deaths in the UK during 2015. So that accounted for another one extra person per 382 people.

jayss

Overseas buyers leaving empty flats is a major part of the issue in London.

But to self build, I've never seen a row of them but know a few people who have bought plots to build on.

G_M

Yes it happens but is rare.

Far more common (less so in the last few years) is 'land banking' where someone buys a farm field and sells off plots cheaply with no planning permission, persuading the gullible that PP will be available in a few years.......

https://www.the-fca.org.uk/consumers/land-banking-investment-schemes

Guest101

AdrianC wrote: »

Equally, it's nowhere near as much as people say.

Net migration of 330,000 last year, into a country of 65,000,000, means that there was one extra person for every 197 people already here. New migrants are also more likely to live as part of larger households than those already here, so there is likely to be a lower increase in the number of households. - Yes but it's still an increase. It's part of the wider picture. I'm an immigrant so I'm not taking a moral view on this.


There were 170,000 more births than deaths in the UK during 2015. So that accounted for another one extra person per 382 people.

The stats from 2015 aren't going to be relevant for another 18 years though, we need to look at the birth from 97/98 compared to death rates in 2015 to get a more accurate picture

AdrianC

Guest101 wrote: »

The stats from 2015 aren't going to be relevant for another 18 years though, we need to look at the birth from 97/98 compared to death rates in 2015 to get a more accurate picture

If you're going to be picky about that, then, you might like to further refine the migration figures to remove under 18s entering and leaving the country...

Or we could just shrug and accept that the figures are just a tiny part of what's a very complex issue... Not even looking at the number of households can give us a true picture, because that ignores constrained demand, people who want to form a household but can't. Even if you were to start to try to produce some kind of study of how large that might be, you would also need to consider how realistic the demand was - somebody who is completely unskilled and on minimum wage is never realistically going to be able to live on their own in the middle of an inherently high-housing-cost area, for instance, no matter how much they might want to...

Brock_and_Roll

Lets be honest, a large proportion of British people a) cant be bothered b) lack the creativity to get involved in self-build and would rather buy a box off Mr Wimpey.


I guess if there was significant demand, then it would be more common here - creative financing solutions would pop up just like they do with BTL etc.

Guest101

AdrianC wrote: »

If you're going to be picky about that, then, you might like to further refine the migration figures to remove under 18s entering and leaving the country... - I wasn't being picky, and I agree that net migration obviously does not mean an extra 330,000 households. It's just a fact that people live longer and therefore the stock rotation is slower

Or we could just shrug and accept that the figures are just a tiny part of what's a very complex issue... - totally agree, I was just giving some examples, it's much bigger than that. Not even looking at the number of households can give us a true picture, because that ignores constrained demand, people who want to form a household but can't. Even if you were to start to try to produce some kind of study of how large that might be, you would also need to consider how realistic the demand was - somebody who is completely unskilled and on minimum wage is never realistically going to be able to live on their own in the middle of an inherently high-housing-cost area, for instance, no matter how much they might want to...

Very true. I was mostly saying that BTL isn't to blame for the housing crisis really