Looking thorough the very many published accounts of those who have created spectacular self build homes, it is noticeable just how many have decided that the time was right for them either as they were approaching retirement or after they had retired. In addition talking with members of the Property Pension Club it is noticeable that many who have looked at self build as a way to enhance their pension, have also often thought of including a special house to build that they intend later to retire to themselves. In a similar way many who have self built holiday homes have looked to have the choice later, should they choose, to retire and live in their idyllic setting.
With a family and the need to get to and from a job, where you live and what style you can afford in the area you have to stay within, may be limiting. With the shortage of property in many locations, property prices have gone sky high, and it is noticeable therefore that you could buy a whole street in some parts of the country for the same price as a single home in some areas of London and other major cities. Of course city salaries are higher as well, so people can afford to live there. Some choose to live further out and commute, spending less on housing but more on travel, but practical commuting places also tend to be more expensive places to live.
The answerer for many people is to look either when they retire or when approaching it at moving away from the pollution and crime and into the cheaper and more pleasant areas of the country.
If they had bought their city property, this may mean that they can either look to retain it and rent it out receiving city rents while having country expenses, or they may decide to sell the city property and buy a number of country properties to let out, as well as one to live in. This gives them a nice home, a good income and continuing appreciation in the value of the assets they hold, so that this side of their pension income is proofed against inflation. Having a number of properties to let has advantages over a single one, in that you don't have all your eggs in one basket, so risks of getting a bad tenant or having a void (unlet period) is less noticeable, and normally your income will be greater. Later by gearing, using equity (the difference between what you owe on the mortgage if any and the current value of the property), you can get more buy to let properties and this starting with a few, grows in number quite quickly, as all are appreciating in value and equity continues to accumulate. In this way some people move from a position where in the city they could not see how they could make ends meet, to a position as a landlord with a large number of properties where money is never again going to present any concerns for them. Of course you don't need to become involved in self build to achieve this. If you want to find out more on 'buy to let' then visit the Property Pension Clubs site, and see the page on this site on self build for buy to let.
Of course you could look, as some have, at self building your own estate, living in the house of your choice and letting the others out. This perhaps has the added attraction that you can keep a very close eye on what is happening to your properties, but may also make you too close and too involved with your tenants. The problem with being too much of a friend to your tenants is that as a friend, they might look to you to not keep their rents up to the market rate, or if times are hard for some reason, or they have just decided they would like to spend their money on something other than the rent, you as a friend may be a soft target for whatever story they have. If you decide to have your own estate then consider operating as a company or a trust, and this gives you in theory at least some distance, and makes the decisions appear to come from someone other than you.
Property you own of course does not all have to be in one area and the opposite extreme is to own a collection of holiday property spread across many countries and let these out, moving yourself from one to another to either fill vacancies or in a planned annual pattern.
For most however considering or having retired, self build is at least initially to provide them with the home of their choice, and design to a higher quality than they would choose to afford by other means.
You have perhaps finished bringing up your family and they have all moved to their own homes, and you now don't need as many bedrooms, however with increased leisure time you may need more leisure space, perhaps a guest suite with its own ensuite facilities, and a dining room with the capacity for a growing family with grandchildren now added, to be able to congregate for special occasions. Perhaps with a life times collection of memorabilia and other items you also need greater storage space, and perhaps considering that in later years you may not be as mobile, you might consider how the home will be able to be adapted for you then.
A common mistake can be to go from no garden to a extremely large one, even grass takes a considerable amount of maintenance, and as you get older this can be a major problem unless you are financially secure enough to bring in garden contractors to maintain it. In Britain, as you may have noticed, we have periods when for a number of days it rains, and grass may grow rapidly, and the longer it gets the longer the gap you need for it to dry to the point you can cut it. Not a major problem if you are doing it yourself, but if using a contractor remember that into the gaps when it is dry, they have to fit the cutting of many peoples grass. If you do decide to go for a large garden put the house to one side rather than in the center, in this way if later you find you just cannot cope you can always cut off one side and with luck either build a small property yourself on it or sell it as building plot. Even if not maintained a separate paddock or plot may be useful or become a wildlife reserve.
Perhaps you have for many years always wanted to build your dream property, and therefore know the style and layout that would suit you best. On the other hand it may be that the idea of creating the ideal home is still very new to you. When you build your own home, in concept the design can be exactly what you want it to be, however its rarely that simple, there is a matter of planning consent, and often properties will be restricted in the way they look, their height, the ground area and in what directions windows can face. You also have building regulations that have to be kept within, which could present a problem, as could the ground on which you propose to build, and the type of foundations that are necessary. Access for vehicles may put a restriction on the positioning of the property within the plot. It may be that you have more scope to have what you like than initially is obvious and after some negotiation, canvassing of councilors or an appeal you can get nearer to what you want, however in many cases some compromises will be necessary, or you will need to look at very many sites until you find the one that will allow you to do just what you want. The larger the geographic area that is acceptable to you the easier it will be to find the ideal plot.
To get to the actual design the best place to start is to list the rooms you think you need, perhaps with two columns, one containing the minimum sizes and the other the maximum, and then look at the various books of plans and on line plans to see just what sort of design layout could include these. Next you need to consider the look or style of the property you like and from this will be able to identify the type of build method that will be involved, allowing you to collect far more relevant information. You can ultimately have plans drawn to give you just what you want, but its a good idea to have looked at how others have managed to arrange things so as to fit in the rooms they wanted.
The clubs work books lead you through the various stages, helping you to see the options and make the decisions. A club consultant will also be helping you to produce the specification of exactly what you want so you are not left to work this out all by yourself.
Finding the ideal plot is for most, the most difficult part of the build project. You may think that there are no plots available to you, or that you will never find one you like. This is where the club can help you most, as in reality there are very many building plots and potential plots, and even in major cities you will often find that of all the plots that obtained planning consent, many have never actually been built on, one study looking at an area of London found that only 25% of plots that had obtained planning consent over a long period had eventually been built on. In country areas there are large gardens to divide, properties that can be knocked down to free up new space, areas to reuse and infill can occur. In many towns, old industrial areas and shops that are no longer needed offer scope for redevelopment.
In practice although people talk about there being a shortage of land to build on in the UK, in reality there is no shortage of land, however there is a restricted amount in many areas of land that currently has building consent. Similarly you will find that a lot of land is cheap, while land with building consent is very much more expensive.
Access, both by road and for services can also present a problem in changing land you would like to be able to build on into a building plot. The cost of access may be as much as a third of the value of the building plots it gives access to.
Where the club can help is in understanding the opportunities in an area, finding more opportunities to obtain plots and then matching the many different needs of different members to these. By combining together groups of members they can look to utilize sites that as an individual self builder you could not look at, either due to its size or the need to have shared services, roads etc, to make it work. The other major benefit of club membership is that it gives you the momentum to actually get started. There is a sizable cost in joining the club and continuing membership, but only in line with the sort of cost you could find in joining a golf or sports club, while with their negotiating power and ability to convert low priced land to expensive plots, most people will make a saving on the land purchase of very many times their club membership.
The club has a trade card it supplies to members, this allows you to get materials at trade prices from a wide range of suppliers, as well as some services. As all suppliers in the area that the club is promoting projects in will have been told of the activities of the club and the trade card, most will not only know all about it, but be very keen to give you the same deal as they do to builders they traditionally deal with, making a very considerable saving on the DIY prices.
So membership of the club should allow you to get going faster, be a project more in line with what you personally want, and save you money both on the plot and on the build.
Consider joining the club, the earlier you join, the better as it means you can get help in defining your needs and profiling the site that you can be matched with.
Read the tutorial section of this website that will tell you far more about self build.
Consider subscribing to some of the monthly self build magazines, or attending one of the self build exhibitions.
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Self Build Homes Club is an international club
and trading title of Self
Build Homes Club llc. Local services
to serve members are commissioned for the club by New
Atlantis International Services Corporation.
All major commissioned companies involved, have New Atlantis trust status.