Building Your Own Home - Benefits
The Good News and The Bad News
As mentioned before, over 20,000 people a year build their own homes in the UK. However, it isn't for everyone. There can be a huge amount of stress involved, you may have to put up with living in a caravan next to a building site for a couple of months, unforeseen problems can drain your funds and unreliable tradesmen are an all-to-real worry. Here we will list what we see as the Pro's and Con's of self-build, hopefully to help you better make this important decision.
The Good News
1. Save Money
Possibly the most appealing benefit is the potential money you could save. Buy a ready-built house from a developer and you are paying for the build and land costs, plus the developers' profit margin. Build your own house and the developers profit stays in your pocket (or is used to create a bigger or higher specification house than you could normally afford).
2. Tax Savings
At a time when we seem to be taxed at every turn, you will be pleased to know that ALL materials and labour used for building your home is VAT free! You will have to pay the VAT initially, but once the build is complete, you can submit your invoices and receive it all back, usually fairly quickly. If you are using a single, VAT-registered builder, their bills for labour and materials should not include VAT. This also applies to conversions of barns, churches, etc, into dwellings (but sadly not renovations unless the property has been empty for 3 years).
3. Creative Freedom
Don't like the idea of living in a nondescript brick box that looks exactly the same as the other 20 houses in the street? Self-build allows you to have a house that is as individual as you (or your architect) can imagine. Want vaulted ceilings and open-plan living spaces? Go for a steel frame kit. Like the idea of lots of bare wood and clean lines? Choose a Scandinavian style wood frame house. The possibilities are endless.
4. Satisfaction
The satisfaction of creating something yourself, even if you didn't actually lay bricks or plaster walls. You will have seen through, from start to finish the creation of your home. What better feeling could there be?
The Bad News
1. Stress
This is no small undertaking. Building your own home can be stressful in the extreme. Dealing with tradesmen, dealing with your lender, juggling finances, scheduling build stages. If any one of these things is handled badly, you could see a big rise in both time and costs of your self-build. Self-builders, or certainly the more hands-on self-builder, seem to all have a good ability to organise. An essential skill!
2. Builders
One of the biggest worries for the non hands-on self-builder is picking the right builder. Your home is essentially in their hands and a bad choice could both add to your stress and your overdraft. Take your time when choosing a builder, talk to friends to see if they have used any trusted builders, check the Federation of Master Builders (http://www.fmb.org.uk/), check references and ask any prospective builders if they have worked with house kits (if you are using one) and ask for examples.
3. Underestimating
With the best planning in the world, the most diligent research and with a superstar builder, unforeseen problems are bound to occur. They happen to the most experienced developer and the 1st time self-builder. The difference is how you handle these problems. Never budget right up the maximum you can borrow (or the maximum cash you have available). Ideally, keep 10-15% free for these inevitable surprises.
