Modular or Kit Home Advice

fiftyg

Hi All

I have a close friend who has about 300K in the bank to put towards the purchase of a home, but unfortunately nothing seems to be coming to the market that is satisfactory for their living and working demands. Could anyone advise if this cash amount would be enough to purchase a modular/kit home? Also if possible some legitimate companies to aid in the process would be appreciated. Apart from the home purchase I know that there is also the plot of land to contend with as well. Just taking it one step at a time.

Please let me know if you need any other details.

Cheers

babyblade41

you would have to buy the land then apply for planning  permission.  A neighbour had 12 acres of land  & had  2 built on his land.

It is an expensive project as his never included any of the ground works , plus you have utility connections which are costly 


We had the land but thought a good sized log cabin would be lovely but again no groundworks included.  It's cheaper for us to renovate an old barn.

I think your friend would need in the region of about 500k  to do it 

Section62

fiftyg said:

I have a close friend who has about 300K in the bank to put towards the purchase of a home, but unfortunately nothing seems to be coming to the market that is satisfactory for their living and working demands. Could anyone advise if this cash amount would be enough to purchase a modular/kit home? Also if possible some legitimate companies to aid in the process would be appreciated. Apart from the home purchase I know that there is also the plot of land to contend with as well. Just taking it one step at a time.

As babyblade41 points out - this won't necessarily be a cheaper option than buying a suitable existing property. 

Without experience it is difficult to do self-build type projects to a budget, there are always unforseen expenses and/or changes to the specification.  Unlike a conventional property purchase where you know the full cost before committing, the major risk with self-build/project-build is running out of cash before completion.

Have they managed to find suitable plots of land?  If there aren't suitable properties coming to market in the area I'd be surprised if suitable building land was that much easier to find.  Also bear in mind the difficulty (and cost/time) involved in getting planning consent - particularly for a build which departs significantly from the 'norms' of the local area.

babyblade41

Just as a cost for us and we already own the land  & live on a mobile home on site, we have had to pay architects, soil analysis tests, foul water surveys, (we are off grid & have no mains sewer or gas)  we have been in our tin can a year in May before a spade even gets put in the ground.

We finally got planning permission in November  & hopefully build will start end of April . Self build projects are neither cheap or quick & virtually  financially a never ending money pit if you are starting with nothing , especially not having the land.

Your biggest & most expensive thing will be buying the land & getting planning permission 

MobileSaver

fiftyg said:

I know that there is also the plot of land to contend with as well. Just taking it one step at a time.

Until your friend has found a suitable plot of land to build on then everything else is irrelevant...

TripleH

Maybe the best approach is to work out what they need from a house.

How many bedrooms do they need, what radius from work, friends etc?

We focused on putting together a shortlist of houses that met our requirements before we focused on what the house looked like.

Yes it's boring but it means you are less likely to be disappointed in the longer term living there. We did find a house near where we were living that we were so desperate to get to fit our requirements but on reflection it would have been a bad idea.

ThisIsWeird

I think the OP is asking whether the £300k is enough for the house kit, should they be able to find a suitable plot. What type of kit could you buy for thisish amount?

Are 'mortgages' available for plots of land?

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

I think the OP is asking whether the £300k is enough for the house kit, should they be able to find a suitable plot. What type of kit could you buy for thisish amount?

Are 'mortgages' available for plots of land?

You can get loans to buy land, but it isn't as simple as getting a mortgage on a property which has already been built and is habitable. I read "put towards" as meaning the total budget is expected to be somewhere north of that figure.

The cost of the 'kit' will be a fraction of the total cost of the project.

TripleH

ThisIsWeird said:

I think the OP is asking whether the £300k is enough for the house kit, should they be able to find a suitable plot. What type of kit could you buy for thisish amount?

Are 'mortgages' available for plots of land?

Was this to me? My comment was more if they were finding it hard to find a house, maybe rethink their stratergy for house hunting? The only building projects I am aware of involve construction / renovation on land already owned so that none of the issues above would apply.

FreeBear

babyblade41 said: Your biggest & most expensive thing will be buying the land & getting planning permission 

Depending on the size of the plot and location, that alone could quite easily cost £300K.

ProDave

As a rough rule of thumb allow at least £2000 per square metre to build a house.  So your £300K might just stretch to a 150 square metre house.  But that is just the build cost, no allowance got land, getting services connected etc, and there are so many variables if you actually embarked on that with no contingency you might run out of money (happens regularly in Grand Designs)

The key to a self build is finding land to build on, and that varies hugely where you are in the UK.  Give us a hint where that is and we can either say yes that's a good idea, or no hope of ever finding a plot you can afford.

Also is the £300K expected to buy the land connect the services and build the house?  or just as assumed the pot of money to build the house?